How to format Oracle SQL text-only select output

Question

I am using Oracle SQL (in SQLDeveloper, so I don't have access to SQLPLUS commands such as COLUMN) to execute a query that looks something like this:

select assigner_staff_id as staff_id, active_flag, assign_date,
  complete_date, mod_date
from work where assigner_staff_id = '2096';

The results it give me look something like this:

STAFF_ID               ACTIVE_FLAG ASSIGN_DATE               COMPLETE_DATE             MOD_DATE                  
---------------------- ----------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- 
2096                   F           25-SEP-08                 27-SEP-08                 27-SEP-08 02.27.30.642959000 PM 
2096                   F           25-SEP-08                 25-SEP-08                 25-SEP-08 01.41.02.517321000 AM 

2 rows selected

This can very easily produce a very wide and unwieldy textual report when I'm trying to paste the results as a nicely formatted quick-n-dirty text block into an e-mail or problem report, etc. What's the best way to get rid of all tha extra white space in the output columns when I'm using just plain-vanilla Oracle SQL? So far all my web searches haven't turned up much, as all the web search results are showing me how to do it using formatting commands like COLUMN in SQLPLUS (which I don't have).

Answer 1

In your statement, you can specify the type of output you're looking for:

select /*csv*/ col1, col2 from table;
select /*Delimited*/ col1, col2 from table;

there are other formats available such as xml, html, text, loader, etc.

You can change the formatting of these particular options under tools > preferences > Database > Utilities > Export

Be sure to choose Run Script rather than Run Statement.

* this is for Oracle SQL Developer v3.2

Answer 2

What are you using to get the results? The output you pasted looks like it's coming from SQL*PLUS. It may be that whatever tool you are using to generate the results has some method of modifying the output.

By default Oracle outputs columns based upon the width of the title or the width of the column data which ever is wider.

If you want make columns smaller you will need to either rename them or convert them to text and use substr() to make the defaults smaller.

select substr(assigner_staff_id, 8) as staff_id, 
      active_flag as Flag, 
      to_char(assign_date, 'DD/MM/YY'),
      to_char(complete_date, 'DD/MM/YY'), 
      mod_date
from work where assigner_staff_id = '2096';