Chapter 14 Formatting Readable Output

Chapter Objectives  Add a column heading with a line break to a report  Format the appearance of numeric data in a column  Specify the width of a column  Add a column heading with a line break to a report  Format the appearance of numeric data in a column  Specify the width of a column

Chapter Objectives  Substitute a text string for a NULL value in a report  Add a multiple-line header to a report  Display a page number in a report  Add a footer to a report  Substitute a text string for a NULL value in a report  Add a multiple-line header to a report  Display a page number in a report  Add a footer to a report

Chapter Objectives  Change the setting of an environment variable  Suppress duplicate report data  Clear changes made by the COLUMN and BREAK commands  Perform calculations in a report  Change the setting of an environment variable  Suppress duplicate report data  Clear changes made by the COLUMN and BREAK commands  Perform calculations in a report

Basic Report Creation in SQL*Plus  Enter format for the report  Enter a query to retrieve data  Enter format for the report  Enter a query to retrieve data

COLUMN Command Formats both column heading and data displayed in column

COLUMN Command Options

FORMAT Option Specifies format model for the data

FORMAT Example

HEADING Option Specifies a column heading

Output with HEADING Option

SET Command  SET command used to change the UNDERLINE variable  Assign blank space to add separator with FORMAT option of COLUMN command  SET command used to change the UNDERLINE variable  Assign blank space to add separator with FORMAT option of COLUMN command

Modified Report

NULL Option Provides substitute for NULL values

Report Headers and Footers  Header –Appears at top of reports –Created with TTITLE command  Footer –Appears at bottom of reports –Created with BTITLE command  Header –Appears at top of reports –Created with TTITLE command  Footer –Appears at bottom of reports –Created with BTITLE command

TTITLE and BTITLE Options

SQL*Plus Variables

BREAK Command  Suppresses duplicate data  Allows blank lines after groups  Suppresses duplicate data  Allows blank lines after groups

BREAK Command Example

CLEAR Command Used to clear settings applied to the BREAK and COLUMN commands

COMPUTE Command Can include AVG, SUM, COUNT, MAX, or MIN keywords

COMPUTE Command Example

SPOOL Command Saves results to text file

SPOOL Command Example