Sqlplus formattin issue

Question

Hi,
my database version is:
BANNER                                                                         
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production         
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production                                         
CORE     11.2.0.1.0     Production                                                     
TNS for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production                        
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production                                          I execute the following statements in sqlplus:
set serveroutput on size unlimited
set linesize 100
col lvl format 9999
col txt format a80
set pagesize 9999
select level lvl
      , rpad ('*', level * 20, 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog') txt
   from dual
connect by level <= 10;The col keyword instruct sqlplus to keep the width of column txt to 80. This is causing word wrapping when column is longer than 80:
Output:
  LVL TXT
    1 *The quick brown fox
    2 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy
    3 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown
    4 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
    5 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
      azy dogThe quick bro
    6 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
      azy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over th
    7 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
      azy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick
    8 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
      azy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over
    9 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
      azy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over
       the lazy dogThe qui
   10 *The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the l
      azy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps over
       the lazy dogThe quick brown fox jumps oAny time the column is exceeding 80 character, after word wrapping is also adding a blank line (from id 5 onwards).
This is not a big issue but is there any way to avoid this blank line?
Regards.
Al

Answer 1

Hi, Al,
SET     RECSEP  OFFeliminates the extra lines.
The way to un-do that command is, unintuitively:
SET     RECSEP  WRAPPED