Why do i get #### in the NUMBER column after format… Oracle?

Question

I have two problematic columns: Fee NUMBER type, AdjFee also NUMBER. After

column Fee format a5;
select Fee ID smth
from Visit;

i get

Fee    ID   smth
####  123  klkl
####  654  rfjgr

Answer 1

You can adjust the number of digits you want SQL*Plus to use to display the numeric data just as you adjust the number of characters used to display character data. Something like

column fee format 999999999.99

will tell SQL*Plus to display up to 9 digits before the decimal point and two after the decimal point. You can adjust that, of course, if you know your fees are going to be smaller (or larger).

Answer 2

Yes, column names can be truncated (or) changed to the name you want

From your above select statement.

If you want to truncate 'Fee' column to 'Fe'. Here is the procedure -

col c1 heading "Fe" for a5

col c2 heading "ID" for 999

col c3 heading "smth" for a5

select fee c1, ID c2, smth c3 from visit;