left padding the name of department : LPAD « Character String Functions « Oracle PL/SQL Tutorial

1. Oracle PL/SQL Tutorial
2. Character String Functions
3. LPAD

SQL>
SQL> create table departments
  2  ( deptno NUMBER(2)
  3  , dname  VARCHAR2(10)
  4  , location VARCHAR2(20)
  5  , mgr    NUMBER(4)
  6  ) ;

Table created.

SQL>
SQL> insert into departments values (10,'ACCOUNTING','NEW YORK' ,  2);

1 row created.

SQL> insert into departments values (20,'TRAINING',  'VANCOUVER',  3);

1 row created.

SQL> insert into departments values (30,'SALES',     'CHICAGO',    4);

1 row created.

SQL> insert into departments values (40,'HR',        'BOSTON',     5);

1 row created.

SQL>
SQL>
SQL> select dname
  2  ,      lpad(dname,9,'>')
  3  from   departments;

DNAME      LPAD(DNAM
---------- ---------
ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTIN
TRAINING   >TRAINING
SALES      >>>>SALES
HR         >>>>>>>HR

SQL>
SQL> drop table departments;

Table dropped.

SQL>
SQL>