Output Formatting Examples

By default, Vertica formats query output as follows:

=> SELECT DISTINCT category_description FROM product_dimension ORDER BY category_description;
       category_description
----------------------------------
 Food
 Medical
 Misc
 Non-food
(4 rows)

You can control the format of query output in various ways with the \pset command—for example, change the border:

=> \pset border 2
Border style is 2.
=> SELECT DISTINCT category_description FROM product_dimension ORDER BY category_description;
+----------------------------------+
|       category_description       |
+----------------------------------+
| Food                             |
| Medical                          |
| Misc                             |
| Non-food                         |
+----------------------------------+
(4 rows)

=> \pset border 0
Border style is 0. 
=> SELECT DISTINCT category_description FROM product_dimension ORDER BY category_description;
      category_description
--------------------------------
Food
Medical
Misc
Non-food
(4 rows)

The following sequence of pset commands change query output in several ways:

  • Set border style to 1.
  • Remove column alignment.
  • Change the field separator to a comma.
  • Remove column headings
=> \pset border 1
Border style is 1. 
=> \pset format unaligned 
Output format is unaligned. 
=> \pset fieldsep ',' 
Field separator is ",". 
=> \pset tuples_only 
Showing only tuples. 
=> SELECT product_key, product_description, category_description FROM product_dimension LIMIT 10;
1,Brand #2 bagels,Food
1,Brand #1 butter,Food
2,Brand #6 chicken noodle soup,Food
3,Brand #11 vanilla ice cream,Food
4,Brand #14 chocolate chip cookies,Food
4,Brand #12 rash ointment,Medical
6,Brand #18 bananas,Food
7,Brand #25 basketball,Misc
8,Brand #27 french bread,Food
9,Brand #32 clams,Food

The following example uses meta-commands to toggle output format—in this case, \a (alignment), \t (tuples only), and -x (extended display):

=> \a \t \x
Output format is aligned.
Tuples only is off.
Expanded display is off.
=> SELECT product_key, product_description, category_description FROM product_dimension LIMIT 10;
 product_key |       product_description        |       category_description
-------------+----------------------------------+----------------------------------
           1 | Brand #2 bagels                  | Food
           1 | Brand #1 butter                  | Food
           2 | Brand #6 chicken noodle soup     | Food
           3 | Brand #11 vanilla ice cream      | Food
           4 | Brand #14 chocolate chip cookies | Food
           4 | Brand #12 rash ointment          | Medical
           6 | Brand #18 bananas                | Food
           7 | Brand #25 basketball             | Misc
           8 | Brand #27 french bread           | Food
           9 | Brand #32 clams                  | Food
(10 rows)

The following example sets output format to HTML, so Vertica renders query results in HTML markup as a table:

=> \pset format html
Output format is html.
=> \pset tableattr 'border="2" cellpadding="3"'
Table attribute is "border="2" cellpadding="3"".
=> SELECT product_key, product_description, category_description FROM product_dimension LIMIT 2;
<table border="1" border="2" cellpadding="3">
  <tr>
    <th align="center">product_key</th>
    <th align="center">product_description</th>
    <th align="center">category_description</th>
  </tr>
  <tr valign="top">
    <td align="right">1</td>
    <td align="left">Brand #2 bagels</td>
    <td align="left">Food                            </td>
  </tr>
  <tr valign="top">
    <td align="right">1</td>
    <td align="left">Brand #1 butter</td>
    <td align="left">Food                            </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>(2 rows)<br />
</p>