SQL Job outputting as HTML Table instead of text

Question

Ok so i have a job that runs with 4 separate select queries in it.

EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
    @profile_name = 'Database Email',
    @recipients = 'dbcheck@xxx.com',
    @subject = 'SQL Replication Deletion Check',
    @query = ''SELECT '\\server1\folder1\SQL\check.sql''
SELECT '' ''
SELECT ''1''
SELECT * FROM [repserv].[dbo].[1repdupecheck]
SELECT '' ''
SELECT ''2''
SELECT * FROM [repserv].[dbo].[2repdupecheck]
SELECT '' ''
SELECT ''3''
SELECT * FROM [repserv].[dbo].[3repdupecheck]
SELECT '' ''
SELECT ''4''
SELECT * FROM [repserv].[dbo].[4repdupecheck]',
    @attach_query_result_as_file = 0,
    @query_result_no_padding = 1,
    @query_result_header = 0;

Currently it outputs as text quite nicely like so.

\\server1\folder1\SQL\check.sql

1
1820 '45074',
1854 '45074',
1822 '45488',

2
1819 '45074',
1853 '45074',
1851 '45488',

3
1871 '43971',
1873 '43971',
1875 '44429',

4
1842 '42729',
1857 '42729',
1870 '43971',

However I would like it to be in table format so I can highlight a column of data at a time easily.

I understand this can be done with HTML, is this the only way possible, if so how would i go about doing this?

Answer 1

The way that I typically do this is to put these results into the @body parameter, and not the @query parameter. That is, I first get all of the results and format them, and then simply pass that to the procedure, instead of doing it on the fly at the procedure call.

This might look something like this:

DECLARE @EmailBody NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'Some Text Here <table><thead><tr><th>SomeHeaderOne</th><th>SomeHeaderTwo</th></tr></thead><tbody>##TableBody##</tbody>'
DECLARE @EmailTableContent NVARCHAR(MAX)

SELECT @EmailTableContent = COALESCE(@EmailTableContent + '', '')
                        + '<tr>'
                        + '<td style="border-bottom: solid 1px #ddd; padding: 20px;">' + ColumnOne + '</td>'
                        + '<td style="border-bottom: solid 1px #ddd; padding: 20px; text-align: center;">' + ColumnTwo + '</td>'
                        + '</tr>'
FROM TheTable
WHERE ColumnOne = 'Something'

SELECT @EmailBody = REPLACE(@EmailBody, '##TableBody##', @EmailTableContent)

EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@profile_name = 'Database Email',
@recipients = 'dbcheck@xxx.com',
@subject = 'SQL Replication Deletion Check',
@body = @EmailBody,