How to export mostly text fields from mysql to CSV and import to MS-EXCEL , keeping fields aligned.

Hi Team,

  I'm just trying to find an elegant way to script an export to csv for one of my mysql tables whose fields are mostly text, some of which are "varchar" and "longtext" field type.

My problem is that in the fields that are multiline (since they contain paragraphs), when I use the command below:

 SELECT * INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/tabledump.csv' FIELDS TERMINATED BY '|'  ENCLOSED BY '"' LINES TERMINATED BY '\N' FROM ChangeRecord

Select allOpen in new window

...once I import it to MS Excel, (even if I do it manually by doing a data import, specify delimiter, date format, etc), then excel gets confused with the fields which contain line returns and puts these multi line fields into separate cells, thus totally destroying the format of the table.

*However, if I do it from phpmyadmin, then I do "export" --> "CSV for MS Excel"  --> "Save as file"...then "go"....phpmyadmin allows me to open the table directly into excel with all the text fields intact.  Even text fields containing multiple paragraphs STAY within one cell, thus preserving the entire data table structure and all fields and row align perfectly.

Is there a workaround to the export utility in CLI in mysql so I can do what the phpmyadmin does correctly?  Alternatively, is there a command line for phpmyadmin that allows me to do the export CSV for MS excel option?

Thanks very much.