So the MSSQL "Save Results As..." feature from the query editor window allows export as csv - which is a step in the right direction, but still pathetic in it's options [ie: none] However the encoding appears to be UTF-16, I don't know if this is database derived or if it forces encoding at export time [I have no interest in learning more about MSSQL unless it's absolutely necessary, out of the gate I despise it with a deep and abiding loathing]
When attempting to prep the exported csv with a simple php script to insert the data into a holding table, I was appalled to find out that there were encoding artifacts *in between every character* [my ignorance of UTF-16 encoding shines here... I'm assuming it's a multibyte character encoding byte of some sort] - long story short, the data needs further intervention before it's ready to import/insert into a UTF-8 PostgresSQL database table.
TextWrangler to the rescue:
Using the Zap Gremlins function I was able to eradicate all non ascii characters from my dataset - which in this instance was fine as I'm doing very rudimentary and gross information prep.
