Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide

COLUMN

The COLUMN command is used to format report output for columnar reports. Using this command, you can control column width, the column title, the way numbers are displayed, whether or not long values wrap to a new line, and a host of other things. Chapter 3 discusses this command.

COL[UMN] [column_name [ALI[AS] alias|
                      CLE[AR]|
                      FOLD_A[FTER]|
                      FOLD_B[EFORE]|
                      FOR[MAT] format_spec|
                      HEA[DING] heading_text|
                      JUS[TIFY] {LEFT|CENTER|CENTRE|RIGHT}|
                      LIKE source_column_name|
                      NEWL[INE]|
                      NEW_V[ALUE] user_variable|
                      NOPRI[NT]|
                      PRI[NT]|
                      NUL[L] null_text|
                      OLD_V[ALUE] user_variable|
                      ON|
                      OFF|
                      TRU[NCATED]|
                      WOR[D_WRAPPED]|
                      WRA[PPED]...]]

where:

COL[UMN]

May be abbreviated to COL. Issuing the COLUMN command with no parameters gets you a list of all current column formats.

column_name

Is the name of the column you are formatting. If it is a computed column, the expression is the name. If your SELECT statement aliases the column, you must use that alias name here. Issuing the command COLUMN column_name with no further parameters causes SQL*Plus to display the current format for that column.

ALI[AS] alias

May be abbreviated ALI. ALIAS allows you to specify an alternate name for this column that is meaningful to SQL*Plus. Do not confuse this with the column alias in a SELECT statement.

alias

Is an alternate name for the column that may be used in BREAK commands, COMPUTE commands, and other COLUMN commands.

CLE[AR]

May be abbreviated to CLE. CLEAR erases any format settings for the column in question. This puts ...