RE: sqlplus question

From: Fink, Dan <Dan.Fink_at_mdx.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 07:48:28 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.004D3CEF.20020919074828@fatcity.com>

If you want only 4 bytes, us the SUBSTR function to take only what you need.

SQL> select ename, job
2 from emp;

SMITH      CLERK
ALLEN      SALESMAN
WARD       SALESMAN
JONES      MANAGER

SQL> set colsep '|'
SQL> /

SMITH     |CLERK
ALLEN     |SALESMAN
WARD      |SALESMAN
JONES     |MANAGER

SQL> select substr(ename,1,4), job
2 from emp;

SMIT|CLERK
ALLE|SALESMAN
WARD|SALESMAN
JONE|MANAGER

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 9:19 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Howdy,

I am spooling my sqlplus output to a file with no headings and all the fields separated by a delimiter. I have a field that is defined as varchar2(56), but typically only 4 or 5 bytes are filled. Oracle recognizes that and if you select length(fld1) from the table, you will get 4. But if I spool this to a file, I always get the full 56 bytes padded with blanks. In other words, I get 4 bytes of data and 52 blanks for that field. I only want the four valid bytes so that my delimiter comes immediately after that 4th byte. My sqlplus options are as follows:

set newpage 0 space 0 linesize 5000 pagesize 0 echo off recsep off feedback off
heading off trimspool on colsep "|"

Bill Carle
AT&T
Database Administrator
816-995-3922
wcarle_at_att.com

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Author: Carle, William T (Bill), ALCAS
INET: wcarle_at_att.com

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Author: Fink, Dan
INET: Dan.Fink_at_mdx.com

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