How to format output in SQL?

[nychick]

Not sure if this is the right forum for SQL statement problems.

I've searched all over but don't know how to output formatted SQL queries. Like Selecting the first letter of the first name and then last name with proper spacing.

[debasisdas]

what exactly you are looking for ?

[nychick]

what exactly you are looking for ?

I'd like to extract the first letter of the first name then period then last name.

So John Smith is

J. Smith

[pratik_garg]

it is very simple nychick

okay lets take an ordinary table structre having information about first name and last name of some persome

table_name = person

------------------
first_name
last_name
.....
....
.... (so on some more table columns)
-------------------

so for what you want you have to write following query in oracle

select substr(first_name,1,1) || '  ' || last_name from person;

please let me know if i have misunderstood your question or if you need any clarification....