Formatting Query Results, 4 of 6

Defining Page and Report Titles and Dimensions

The word page refers to a screen full of information on your display or a page of a spooled (printed) report. You can place top and bottom titles on each page, set the number of lines per page, and determine the width of each line.

The word report refers to the complete results of a query. You can also place headers and footers on each report and format them in the same way as top and bottom titles on pages.

Setting the Top and Bottom Titles and Headers and Footers

As you have already seen, you can set a title to display at the top of each page of a report. You can also set a title to display at the bottom of each page. The TTITLE command defines the top title; the BTITLE command defines the bottom title.

You can also set a header and footer for each report. The REPHEADER command defines the report header; the REPFOOTER command defines the report footer.

A TTITLE, BTITLE, REPHEADER or REPFOOTER command consists of the command name followed by one or more clauses specifying a position or format and a CHAR value you wish to place in that position or give that format. You can include multiple sets of clauses and CHAR values:

TTITLE position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...
BTITLE position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...
REPHEADER position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...
REPFOOTER position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...

For descriptions of all TTITLE, BTITLE, REPHEADER and REPFOOTER clauses, see the TTITLE and REPHEADER commands in Chapter 8.

Example 4-17 Placing a Top and Bottom Title on a Page

To put titles at the top and bottom of each page of a report, enter


TTITLE CENTER -
"ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT"
BTITLE CENTER "COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL"

Now run the current query:


/


                  ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT
DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000


                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Example 4-18 Placing a Header on a Report

To put a report header on a separate page, and to center it, enter


REPHEADER PAGE CENTER 'PERFECT WIDGETS'

Now run the current query:

which displays the following two pages of output, with the new REPHEADER displayed on the first page:


                ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT
                            PERFECT WIDGETS


                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

                ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT
DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

To suppress the report header without changing its definition, enter


REPHEADER OFF

Positioning Title Elements

The report in the preceding exercises might look more attractive if you give the company name more emphasis and place the type of report and the department name on either end of a separate line. It may also help to reduce the linesize and thus center the titles more closely around the data.

You can accomplish these changes by adding some clauses to the TTITLE command and by resetting the system variable LINESIZE, as the following example shows.

You can format report headers and footers in the same way as BTITLE and TTITLE using the REPHEADER and REPFOOTER commands.

Example 4-19 Positioning Title Elements

To redisplay the personnel report with a repositioned top title, enter the following commands:


TTITLE CENTER 'A C M E  W I D G E T' SKIP 1 -
CENTER ==================== SKIP 1 LEFT 'PERSONNEL REPORT' -
RIGHT 'SALES DEPARTMENT' SKIP 2
SET LINESIZE 60
/


                    A C M E  W I D G E T
                    ====================
PERSONNEL REPORT                  SALES DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

The LEFT, RIGHT, and CENTER clauses place the following values at the beginning, end, and center of the line. The SKIP clause tells SQL*Plus to move down one or more lines.

Note that there is no longer any space between the last row of the results and the bottom title. The last line of the bottom title prints on the last line of the page. The amount of space between the last row of the report and the bottom title depends on the overall page size, the number of lines occupied by the top title, and the number of rows in a given page. In the above example, the top title occupies three more lines than the top title in the previous example. You will learn to set the number of lines per page later in this chapter.

To always print n blank lines before the bottom title, use the SKIP n clause at the beginning of the BTITLE command. For example, to skip one line before the bottom title in the example above, you could enter the following command:


BTITLE SKIP 1 CENTER 'COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL'

Indenting a Title Element

You can use the COL clause in TTITLE or BTITLE to indent the title element a specific number of spaces. For example, COL 1 places the following values in the first character position, and so is equivalent to LEFT, or an indent of zero. COL 15 places the title element in the 15th character position, indenting it 14 spaces.

Example 4-20 Indenting a Title Element

To print the company name left-aligned with the report name indented five spaces on the next line, enter


TTITLE LEFT 'ACME WIDGET' SKIP 1 -
COL 6 'SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT' SKIP 2

Now rerun the current query to see the results:


/

ACME WIDGET
     SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Entering Long Titles

If you need to enter a title greater than 500 characters in length, you can use the SQL*Plus command DEFINE to place the text of each line of the title in a separate user variable:


DEFINE LINE1 = 'This is the first line...'
DEFINE LINE2 = 'This is the second line...'
DEFINE LINE3 = 'This is the third line...'

Then, reference the variables in your TTITLE or BTITLE command as follows:


TTITLE CENTER LINE1 SKIP 1 CENTER LINE2 SKIP 1 -
CENTER LINE3

Displaying the Page Number and other System-Maintained
Values in Titles

You can display the current page number and other system-maintained values in your title by entering a system value name as a title element, for example:

TTITLE LEFT system-maintained_value_name

There are five system-maintained values you can display in titles, the most commonly used of which is SQL.PNO (the current page number). For a list of system-maintained values you can display in titles, see the TTITLE command in the "Command Reference" in Chapter 8.

Example 4-21 Displaying the Current Page Number in a Title

To display the current page number at the top of each page, along with the company name, enter the following command:


TTITLE LEFT 'ACME WIDGET' RIGHT 'PAGE:' SQL.PNO SKIP 2

Now rerun the current query:


/


ACMEWIDGET                                  PAGE:         1

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000


                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Note that SQL.PNO has a format ten spaces wide. You can change this format with the FORMAT clause of TTITLE (or BTITLE).

Example 4-22 Formatting a System-Maintained Value in a Title

To close up the space between the word PAGE: and the page number, reenter the TTITLE command as shown:


TTITLE LEFT 'ACME WIDGET' RIGHT 'PAGE:' FORMAT 999 -
SQL.PNO SKIP 2

Now rerun the query:


/


ACME WIDGET                                     'PAGE:'   1

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000


                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Listing, Suppressing, and Restoring Page Title Definitions

To list a page title definition, enter the appropriate title command with no clauses:


TTITLE
BTITLE

To suppress a title definition, enter:


TTITLE OFF
BTITLE OFF

These commands cause SQL*Plus to cease displaying titles on reports, but do not clear the current definitions of the titles. You may restore the current definitions by entering:


TTITLE ON
BTITLE ON

Displaying Column Values in Titles

You may wish to create a master/detail report that displays a changing master column value at the top of each page with the detail query results for that value below. You can reference a column value in a top title by storing the desired value in a variable and referencing the variable in a TTITLE command. Use the following form of the COLUMN command to define the variable:

COLUMN column_name NEW_VALUE variable_name

You must include the master column in an ORDER BY clause and in a BREAK command using the SKIP PAGE clause.

Example 4-23 Creating a Master/Detail Report

Suppose you want to create a report that displays two different managers' employee numbers, each at the top of a separate page, and the people reporting to the manager on the same page as the manager's employee number. First create a variable, MGRVAR, to hold the value of the current manager's employee number:


COLUMN MANAGER_ID NEW_VALUE MGRVAR NOPRINT

Because you will only display the managers' employee numbers in the title, you do not want them to print as part of the detail. The NOPRINT clause you entered above tells SQL*Plus not to print the column MANAGER_ID.

Next, include a label and the value in your page title, enter the proper BREAK command, and suppress the bottom title from the last example:


TTITLE LEFT 'Manager: ' MGRVAR SKIP 2
BREAK ON MANAGER_ID SKIP PAGE
BTITLE OFF

Finally, enter and run the following query:


SELECT MANAGER_ID, DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE MANAGER_ID IN (101, 201)
ORDER BY MANAGER_ID, DEPARTMENT_ID;


Manager:       101

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           10 Whalen                          4400
           40 Mavris                          6500
           70 Baer                           10000
          100 Greenberg                      12000
          110 Higgins                        12000

Manager:       201

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Fay                             6000

6 rows selected.

If you want to print the value of a column at the bottom of the page, you can use the COLUMN command in the following form:

COLUMN column_name OLD_VALUE variable_name

SQL*Plus prints the bottom title as part of the process of breaking to a new page--after finding the new value for the master column. Therefore, if you simply referenced the NEW_VALUE of the master column, you would get the value for the next set of details. OLD_VALUE remembers the value of the master column that was in effect before the page break began.

Displaying the Current Date in Titles

You can, of course, date your reports by simply typing a value in the title. This is satisfactory for ad hoc reports, but if you want to run the same report repeatedly, you would probably prefer to have the date automatically appear when the report is run. You can do this by creating a variable to hold the current date.

To create the variable (in this example named _DATE), you can add the following commands to your SQL*Plus LOGIN file:


SET TERMOUT OFF
BREAK ON TODAY
COLUMN TODAY NEW_VALUE _DATE
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'fmMonth DD, YYYY') TODAY
FROM DUAL;
CLEAR BREAKS
SET TERMOUT ON

When you start SQL*Plus, these commands place the value of SYSDATE (the current date) into a variable named _DATE. To display the current date, you can reference _DATE in a title as you would any other variable.

The date format model you include in the SELECT command in your LOGIN file determines the format in which SQL*Plus displays the date. See your Oracle9i SQL Reference for more information on date format models. For more information about the LOGIN file, see the section "Modifying Your LOGIN File" in Chapter 3.

You can also enter these commands interactively at the command prompt. For more information, see the COLUMN command in Chapter 8.

Setting Page Dimensions

Typically, a page of a report contains the number of blank line(s) set in the NEWPAGE variable of the SET command, a top title, column headings, your query results, and a bottom title. SQL*Plus displays a report that is too long to fit on one page on several consecutive pages, each with its own titles and column headings. The amount of data SQL*Plus displays on each page depends on the current page dimensions.

The default page dimensions used by SQL*Plus are shown below:

number of lines before the top title: 1
number of lines per page, from the top title to the bottom of the page: 24
number of characters per line: 80

You can change these settings to match the size of your computer screen or, for printing, the size of a sheet of paper.

You can change the page length with the system variable PAGESIZE. For example, you may wish to do so when you print a report, since printed pages are customarily 66 lines long.

To set the number of lines between the beginning of each page and the top title, use the NEWPAGE variable of the SET command:

SET NEWPAGE number_of_lines

If you set NEWPAGE to zero, SQL*Plus skips zero lines and displays and prints a formfeed character to begin a new page. On most types of computer screens, the formfeed character clears the screen and moves the cursor to the beginning of the first line. When you print a report, the formfeed character makes the printer move to the top of a new sheet of paper, even if the overall page length is less than that of the paper. If you set NEWPAGE to NONE, SQL*Plus does not print a blank line or formfeed between report pages.

To set the number of lines on a page, use the PAGESIZE variable of the SET command:

SET PAGESIZE number_of_lines

You may wish to reduce the linesize to center a title properly over your output, or you may want to increase linesize for printing on wide paper. You can change the line width using the LINESIZE variable of the SET command:

SET LINESIZE number_of_characters

Example 4-24 Setting Page Dimensions

To set the page size to 66 lines, clear the screen (or advance the printer to a new sheet of paper) at the start of each page, and set the linesize to 70, enter the following commands:


SET PAGESIZE 66
SET NEWPAGE 0
SET LINESIZE 70

Now enter and run the following commands to see the results:


TTITLE CENTER 'ACME WIDGET PERSONNEL REPORT' SKIP 1 -
CENTER '01-JAN-2001' SKIP 2

Now run the following query:


COLUMN FIRST_NAME HEADING 'FIRST|NAME';
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST|NAME';
COLUMN SALARY  HEADING 'MONTHLY|SALARY' FORMAT $99,999;
SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;


                    ACME WIDGET PERSONNEL REPORT
                              01-JAN-2001

              FIRST                LAST                      MONTHLY
DEPARTMENT_ID NAME                 NAME                       SALARY
------------- -------------------- ------------------------- --------
           90 Steven               King                       $24,000
           90 Neena                Kochhar                    $17,000
           90 Lex                  De Haan                    $17,000
           80 John                 Russell                    $14,000
           80 Karen                Partners                   $13,500
           20 Michael              Hartstein                  $13,000

6 rows selected.

Now reset PAGESIZE, NEWPAGE, and LINESIZE to their default values:


SET PAGESIZE 24
SET NEWPAGE 1
SET LINESIZE 80

To list the current values of these variables, use the SHOW command:


SHOW PAGESIZE
SHOW NEWPAGE
SHOW LINESIZE

Through the SQL*Plus command SPOOL, you can store your query results in a file or print them on your computer's default printer.