If suppose I execute this:
mysql -umyuserid -pmypassword -hmymachine -e "select * from mytable;"
I will get my rows with borders drawn with |, - etc However, the same command when redirected to a file will get me something like a tab delimited output
mysql -umyuserid -pmypassword -hmymachine -e "select * from mytable;" > mydata.csv
This resultant file can be opened in a spreadsheet program
So my question -- how does it do it, and why was it so worth their while to do it?