Preventing sqlplus truncation of column names, without individual column formatting

Question

By default sqlplus truncates column names to the length of the underlying data type. Many of the column names in our database are prefixed by the table name, and therefore look

Answer 1

I had the same problem trying to implement this feature in VoraX. In the next version I have in mind the following solution:

set feedback off 
set serveroutput on
declare
  l_c number;
  l_col_cnt number;
  l_rec_tab DBMS_SQL.DESC_TAB2;
  l_col_metadata DBMS_SQL.DESC_REC2;
  l_col_num number;
begin
  l_c := dbms_sql.open_cursor;
  dbms_sql.parse(l_c, '', DBMS_SQL.NATIVE);
  DBMS_SQL.DESCRIBE_COLUMNS2(l_c, l_col_cnt, l_rec_tab);
  for colidx in l_rec_tab.first .. l_rec_tab.last loop
    l_col_metadata := l_rec_tab(colidx);
    dbms_output.put_line('column ' || l_col_metadata.col_name || ' heading ' || l_col_metadata.col_name);
  end loop;
  DBMS_SQL.CLOSE_CURSOR(l_c);
end;

Instead of tweaking column sizes, formatting and stuff just enforce the column heading with the column name you want. I think the same approach would work also with DBA_TAB_COLUMNS solution but I prefer the DBMS_SQL one as it also considers the aliases and it gets only the columns you query.

EDIT: Using just "column heading" doesn't work. It's still needed to use "column format" statements. So, please ignore my previous answer.