Fixed length of a string in a string

Question

Im building this string:

text_ := 'NAME           LNAME         AGE'||chr(13)||chr(10);

FOR person_ IN list LOOP

text_ := text_ ||person_.name||'     '||person_.lname||'      '||person_.age||chr(13)||chr(10);

END LOOP;

Loop will result in:

NAME           LNAME            AGE
name           lname            18
namename            lname           18

Desired result:

NAME           LNAME            AGE
name           lname            18
namename       lname            18

Is there a way to tell a string to fill itself with whitespace if the value within it doesn't reach a fixed value?

Using RPAD:

  text_ := text_||rpad('Name', 30)||rpad('Date', 12)||chr(13)||chr(10)||chr(13)||chr(10);

  FOR op_ IN get_op LOOP
    text_ := text_||rpad(op_.NAME, 30)||rpad(op_.DATE,12)||chr(13)||chr(10);
  END LOOP;

Results in:

Name                          Date      

UserUserUser                    2014-04-03                                                   
UserUser                      2014-04-04
UserUser                      2014-04-03

Is this the exact output in 'Results in:'. Did you copy paste it? First line of date has 2 extra spaces while Name is 4 characters longer. — Rob van Laarhoven
– Rob van Laarhoven, Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 14:52
As commented in answer below I think it looks like that because you use a proportional typeface. Open an editor (Notepad) , choose a monospace font (Lucida Console) and copy-paste output into editor. — Rob van Laarhoven
– Rob van Laarhoven, Commented Apr 7, 2014 at 7:32

Rob van Laarhoven · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-04 13:45:53Z

1

Use rpad

text_ := text_ ||rpad(person_.name,40)||rpad(person_.lname,40)||rpad(person_.age,40)||chr(13)||chr(10);

Test Case

DECLARE
   t VARCHAR2(1000);
BEGIN
   t := RPAD('NAME',10)||RPAD('LNAME',10)||RPAD('AGE',10)||chr(13)||chr(10);
   FOR i IN 8..11
   LOOP
      t := t ||RPAD('Name'||i,10)||RPAD('lname'||i,10)||RPAD(i,10)||chr(13)||chr(10);
   END LOOP;
   dbms_output.put_line(t);
END;

Output:

NAME      LNAME     AGE       
Name8     lname8    8         
Name9     lname9    9         
Name10    lname10   10        
Name11    lname11   11

edited Apr 4, 2014 at 13:45

answered Apr 4, 2014 at 13:15

Rob van Laarhoven

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3 Comments

President Camacho Over a year ago

Doesn't work, everything still get shifted to the left.

Rob van Laarhoven Over a year ago

Are you using a monospace font to display the results?

President Camacho Over a year ago

Actually you're right copy/pasting it gives a correct layout in notepad. I'm sending my text_ into a mail function that mail it to my mail. Somewhere there's the error.

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