Whitespace question

Good morning everyone!

I've been researching for :
a) a function that converts multiple spaces or tabs to a single space in a string
b) a way to suppress blank lines from the output of a SELECT in SQL*Plus

For b) here's an example
set linesize 80
column a format a80
column b format a80
select 'xxx' a, ' ' b from dual;

Since b is empty, a blank line is displayed. I would like to know if there's any way to avoid printing blank lines. The thing is (in real life) b is almost always empty so the reports looks like double-spaced.

Merci beaucoup!

--

Syltrem
http://pages.infinit.net/syltrem (OpenVMS related web site - en français)
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