Specifying an indent for hierarchical Express data

Express data may be stored in hierarchies, or levels. By default, hierarchies appear in reports with indents of two single-byte spaces. You can change the type of characters that are used to fill indents and the size of indents between levels of data by editing the xrpdsprefs.ora file.

To specify indents for hierarchical data:
  1. On the machine where Reports Builder is running, open the xrpdsprefs.ora file, if it exists in the ORACLE_HOME/reports/jlib directory.

    If the file does not exist, then use a text editor to create xrpdsprefs.ora.

  2. Scroll to or create the options.hierarchy.indent.string line.

    This setting defines the indent character as a single-byte space. You can edit this setting for any keystroke character(s), such as asterisk (*) or dash (-). When editing, use quote marks around the character(s) of your choice:

    options.hierarchy.indent.string="*"

  3. Scroll to or create the options.hierarchy.indent.count line.

    This setting may be any integer from 0 though 10. A value of 0 turns off indenting. Values of 1 through 10 specify the number of single-byte characters to include in the indent. The default setting is 2.

  4. Save your changes and close the file.

Example settings for hierarchical data

You can include the following sample settings in the xrpdsprefs.ora file:

options.hierarchy.indent.string ="+ "
options.hierarchy.indent.count =4

The report output is formatted as follows:

Great Britain
+ + + + England
+ + + + + + + + London
+ + + + + + + + Salisbury
+ + + + Scotland
+ + + + + + + + Edinburgh
+ + + + + + + + Glasgow
United States
+ + + + California
+ + + + + + + + Los Angeles
+ + + + + + + + San Francisco
+ + + + + + + + San Jose
+ + + + Pennsylvania
+ + + + + + + + Philadelphia
+ + + + + + + + Pittsburgh