oracle sqlplus – setting output column width

the issue: sometimes your output from oracle can look a little crazy like:

DISPLAY_NAME
----------------------------------------------------------

TABLE_NAME
-----------------------------------------------------------
Display 1
tbl_display1

Display 2
tbl_display2

the solution: shorten the column widths in your output by running the following command:

column  format a

example:

column display_name format a30;
column table_name format a30;

your output will look much nicer:

DISPLAY_NAME           TABLE_NAME
------------------------------- ------------------------------
Display 1                       tbl_display1
Display 2                       tbl_display2