How to remove leading spaces in plsql

Question

How to remove leading spaces in plsql

Hi folks, currently this below gives leading spaces after using 'RTRIM', is there any way i can improvise on this and remove those also if the value is ending with 0 i don't need the 'RTRIM' to remove that 0 since it is part of the solution

BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(0.252345, '9990.99999999999999999999'));
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(RTRIM(TO_CHAR(0.252345, '9990.99999999999999999999'), 0));
END;

Output

0.25234500000000000000
      0.252345

PS: I used RTRIM to prefix 0 before decimal point.

Answer 1

You should use FM in your format to suppress leading space.

TO_CHAR(0.252345, 'FM9990D99999999999999999999')

Or better still, don't do this in SQL (or PL/SQL for that matter) at all, but handle display issues in your app or Website instead.

The decimal separator is D in the format string, not . by the way.