Writing Records in a Text File to Specific Columns in the Text File

Question

Help Please! I am a noooooooooobbbbbb!
I have searched this forum looking for a procedure that will write records from my database into certain col (positions) in a text file. Example:
1234 TONY TEST 84889922 Y 34 TORCHCOMP 34
5678 BOB JOHNS 43534534 N 56 SAFDWEERE 65
I am thinking I would like to setup variaables like:
Consumer_ID = Consumer(position 1,5)
Name = name(position 10,20)
Invoice_No = Invoice(position 30,40)
etc.
Any input will be greatly appreciated
Thank You

Answer 1

Hi,
That's a formatting issue.
Formatting is best done in the front end. For example, using SQL*Plus:
COLUMN     consumer_id     FORMAT 9999     HEADING     c_id
COLUMN     filler_6_9     FORMAT A4     HEADING     " "
COLUMN     name          FORMAT A11
COLUMN     filler_21_29     FORMAT A9     HEADING     " "
COLUMN     invoice_no     FORMAT 9999999999
SET     COLSEP          ""
SET     PAGESIZE     9999
SPOOL     x.dat
SELECT     consumer_id
,     ' '          AS filler_6_9
,     name
,     ' '          AS filler_21_29
,     invoice_no
FROM     table_x;
SPOOL     OFFIf you have to do it in the back end, use functions like TO_CHAR and RPAD to make each part exactly the right length, then concatenate them all into one big string:
SET     PAGESIZE     0
SPOOL     x.dat
SELECT     TO_CHAR ( consumer_id
          , 'fm99999'
          )          -- 1-5
||     '    '               -- 6-9
||     RPAD ( name
          , 11
          )               -- 10-20
||     '         '          -- 21-29
||     TO_CHAR ( invoice_no
          , 'fm9999999999'
          )          -- 30-40
FROM     table_x;
SPOOL     OFFEdited by: Frank Kulash on May 22, 2009 10:40 AM