Set Long

As their name suggests, long columns can be long. Oracle lets you choose how much of a long column you see when you select it. You can do this with the set long SQL*Plus command. To illustrate this, first create a table with a 26 character long column: 

SQL> create table andrews_table

  2  (long1 long)

  3  /

 

Table created.

 

SQL> insert into andrews_table values

  2  ('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ')

  3  /

 

1 row created.

SQL>

To see the current value of long, use the show long command:

 

SQL> show long

long 80

SQL>

The value is 80. This means that you will see a maximum of 80 characters if you select a long column. Therefore, if you select the long column in the table above, you will see all of it: 

 

SQL> select * from andrews_table

  2  /

 

LONG1

-------------------------------------------------------

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

SQL>

If you set long to 10, you will see the first ten characters of a long column:

 

SQL> set long 10

SQL> select * from andrews_table

  2  /

 

LONG1

----------

ABCDEFGHIJ

SQL>

If you set long to 20, you will see the first 20 characters of a long column:

 

SQL> set long 20

SQL> select * from andrews_table

  2  /

 

LONG1

--------------------

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST

SQL>

... and so on:

 

SQL> set long 30

SQL> select * from andrews_table

  2  /

 

LONG1

------------------------------

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

 

SQL>