Showing Text file as external table without trimming spaces

Question

Hi all:
I am trying to display a text file from db sever with original spacing.
Well it's not entirely related to APEX.
This is how external table is created:
create table u_x
  (rowline varchar2(255))
     ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
       TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
       DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tab         <-- this is a dir i have created
       access parameters
       records delimited by newline
       fields notrim
       LOCATION ('aaa.txt')
REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;
on the first line of the aaa.text (its a report), it shows something like:
Sat Dec 29                                                                Page 1
but when I do select * from u_x , the result shows:
Sat Dec 29 Page 1
all above is done in sql workshop /sql command in APEX 4.2.1 (db 10.2.0.5)
Is there any way to preserve the spaces between "29" and "Page"?
(the result compressed all spaces in-between to 1 space).
I think the ideal way is to invoke client's notepad to open the server's text file.
anyway to generate the link?
Thanks
John

Answer 1

Well, I have tried to download the file using below procedure.
create or replace PROCEDURE download_bfile (
      directory_in   IN   VARCHAR2,
      file_in        IN   VARCHAR2
   AS
      lob_loc    BFILE;
      v_mime     VARCHAR2 (48);
      v_length   NUMBER(16);
   BEGIN
      lob_loc := BFILENAME (UPPER (directory_in), file_in);
      v_length := DBMS_LOB.getlength (lob_loc);
      -- set up HTTP header
      -- use an NVL around the mime type and
      -- if it is a null set it to application/octect
      -- application/octect may launch a download window from windows
      OWA_UTIL.mime_header (nvl(v_mime, 'application/octet'), FALSE);
      -- set the size so the browser knows how much to download
      HTP.p ('Content-length: ' || v_length);
      -- the filename will be used by the browser if the users does a save as
      HTP.p (   'Content-Disposition:attachment; filename="'
             || SUBSTR (file_in, INSTR (file_in, '/') + 1)
             || '";'
      -- close the headers
      OWA_UTIL.http_header_close;
      -- download the BLOB
      WPG_DOCLOAD.download_file (lob_loc);
      apex_application.stop_apex_engine;
   END download_bfile;
I run it inside sql command in apex, but it does not show a pop window to save the file,
it displays the whole text content of the file in the result window.
Any idea why the save-as window does not pop up?
thanks,
John.