Re: formatting output with SQL*Plus

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:44:08 +0000, Jim Smith <jim_at_jimsmith.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>In message <31tc22F3f14lnU1_at_individual.net>, Thomas Kellerer
><NNGNVRDSJEBN_at_spammotel.com> writes
>>On 10.12.2004 11:24 Jim Smith wrote:
>>
>>> This (trimming columns in sqlplus) is a longstanding problem. Its very
>>> annoying that Oracle haven't fixed it even after all this time.
>>
>>From the manuals I would have thought that "set trimspool on" should do exactly
>>what I want, but obviously it doesn't...
>>
>IIRC, it only trims the trailing spaces at the end of the line.

There are people who believe that Oracle sees sqlplus as a SQL tool and do not want it to eat into full-blown reporting tool revenue. Certainly some of this excess space behaviour lends credence to this.

Anyway, if you ("OP") can't install packages, the options are to post-process (as someone suggested, sed the excess away; can also be done with awk or a host of options) or use oraperl/pro-c or another replacement for sqlplus -- but I bet you'll say you can't have such programs installed.

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