Re: Question About Viewing Portion of LONG Value in SQL*Plus

In article <CA9Enn.3By_at_cbfsb.cb.att.com> I wrote:

|>I think this has been asked and answered before, but the solution has
|>escaped me. I'm looking for a way to view the first 50 or so characters
|>of a LONG datatype using SQL*Plus. (I know they're not really "characters,"
|>but you know what I mean!) I can't use "substr()" because it's not a
|>character column. Any clues?

All right, I'll answer my own question but then make it harder for the rest of you!

IMHO, the Oracle docs are horrible. So I try not to refer to them too often because they're often misleading, unhelpful, or downright wrong. But, while I was waiting for a response from you wonderful Oracle gurus, I decided to RTFM. And there it was!

	SET LONG {80 | n}	Sets maximum width for displaying and copying
				LONG values.  Valid values are 1 to 32767.  The
				value of LONG must be less than the value of
				MAXDATA.

Now, for a *real* challenge: Is there a way I can display a LONG datatype only up to a certain, specified character such as a newline? We're using LONGs to store text containing newlines. I have a need to see the "first" line of text, but nothing else. The problem is that the newline character could be anywhere from the first byte to about the 50th.

Any ideas?

Please respond as above to sbrenner_at_attmail.com. This time I don't think I'm going to figure it out first!

a T d H v A a N n K c S e

Scott D. Brenner                  AT&T Consumer Communications Services
sbrenner_at_attmail.com                          Basking Ridge, New Jersey
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