Invoke-SqlCmd ist a great cmdlet for PowerShell for querying SQL databases. But sometimes you don’t want to install the extra requirement SQL Server Management Objects on the server.
Invoke-SqlCmd -ServerInstance $Server -Database $Database -Query "SELECT * FROM Staff"
There’s an simple alternative. Use the .NET classes in the System.Data.SqlClient namespace which are available on every computer which has the .NET framework installed.
function SqlQuery($server, $database, $query)
{
$connection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$connection.ConnectionString = "Server=$server;Database=$database;Integrated Security=True;"
$connection.Open()
$command = $connection.CreateCommand()
$command.CommandText = $query
$result = $command.ExecuteReader()
$table = new-object “System.Data.DataTable”
$table.Load($result)
$connection.Close()
return $table
}
SqlQuery $Server $Database "SELECT * FROM Staff"