Are these "features" or bugs?

1. The PL/SQL output procedure DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE() appears to do an implicit LTRIM() on output. E.g. the string ' XX' is output as 'XX'. This really mucks up attempts to output reports in neat columns. I've resorted to putting leading dots at the beginning of the line to force proper alignment. Is there such an animal as a "non-breaking-space" ? BTW, lines consisting entirely of spaces don't get printed at all. Not even a line feed!
2. TO_CHAR(<number>, '99') and any variant thereof appears to return a leading space in addition to the columns specified. Again, not knowing this creates mucho problems when trying to line up output in columns.

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Walter Dnes <waltdnes_at_waltdnes.org> Received on Sat Dec 04 1999 - 00:49:55 CST