Question

Formatting Extract Files with SQL*Pluas

Asked by: david_m_jacobson

I am trying to create a CSV file using SQL*Plus.  I'd like the file to be comma separated.  For example, I'd like the file to look something like this:

field1row1,field2row1,field3row1,field4row1,field5row1
field1row2,field2row2,field3row2,field4row2,field5row2

Instead I am getting something like this (with extra white space filling up the size of each column:

field1row1     ,field2row1          ,field3row1           ,field4row1   ,field5row1  
field1row2     ,field2row2          ,field3row2           ,field4row2   ,field5row2  

How do I get rid of the white space?

set colsep ","
set echo off
set pagesize 0
set feedback off
set trimspool on
set trimout on
set verify off
set linesize 250
set termout off
spool my_file.csv
select
field1,
field2,
field3
field4,
field5
from
table;
spool off
set termout on
set echo on
quit
                                  
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Asked On
2009-10-28 at 08:53:31ID24851416
Tags

Oracle

Topics

Oracle Database

,

Oracle 10.x

,

PL / SQL

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: dvzPosted on 2009-10-28 at 09:03:37ID: 25684743

SELECT field1 ||,|| field2 ||,|| field3 ||,|| field4  ||,|| field5

 

by: dvzPosted on 2009-10-28 at 09:04:40ID: 25684748

My bad, use: SELECT field1 ||','|| field2 ||','|| field3 ||','|| field4  ||','|| field5

 

by: ppinonPosted on 2009-10-28 at 09:06:28ID: 25684770

Your source table columns are of type CHAR ? --> With CHAR you will have spaces.
Instead of using CHAR, use VARCHAR or VARCHAR2

 

by: ppinonPosted on 2009-10-28 at 09:08:48ID: 25684803

Another solution is to use TRIM:

select
trim(field1),
trim(field2),
trim(field3),
trim(field4),
trim(field5)
from
table;

                                              
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by: david_m_jacobsonPosted on 2009-10-28 at 09:11:09ID: 25684834

ppionon, the columns are of type varchar2.

dvz, if I modify the query based on your comments, should I modify any of the "set" lines at the beginning of my code?  For example, should I remove the line set colsep "," since there is only one column in your query?

 

by: dvzPosted on 2009-10-28 at 09:38:51ID: 25685187

Yes, reset the seperator to its default, although that shouldn't be an issue using this concatenation approach.

The approach by ppionon is viable if you have the I/O cycles to manipulate each column of each row.  And as you may be aware, there's the backend approach to open an ODBC connection from Excel into the Oracle db, and retrieve the data using the cross-platform application.

However, if you really wish to blow the socks off your performance wait time, add SET ARRAYSIZE 5000 in order to have the client get more rows at once (the default is 15, left over from Oracle 6 or 7).  Best little known secret.

HTH,
dvz

 

by: virdi_dsPosted on 2009-10-28 at 10:06:13ID: 25685522

In addition to all above comments, use
set trimspool on
That will trunc all white spaces from the last non space character in line.

 

by: david_m_jacobsonPosted on 2009-10-28 at 10:32:15ID: 25685932

Thanks, virdi_ds.  I already had set trimspool on.

ppinon, I tried using trim() around each column retrieved but this did not affect the csv file.  I still have all the white space after the values.

dvz, this works perfectly.  Thank you.  I must say, though, that it seems like there should be a simpler solution than making the entire select statement include a single column to select.  I would have thought that the trim() function would work or that Oracle would have some other setting to remove the trailing whitespace in csv files.  In any case, thank you very much for your help.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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