Output Formatting Examples

The first example shows how to spread a command over several lines of input. Notice the changing prompt:

=> CREATE TABLE my_table ( 
-> first integer not null default 0, 
-> second char(10));
CREATE TABLE

Assume you have filled the table with data and want to take a look at it:

testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table;
 first | second 
-------+-------- 
     1 | one 
     2 | two 
     3 | three 
     4 | four 
(4 rows)

You can display tables in different ways by using the \pset command:

testdb=> \pset border 2
 Border style is 2. 
testdb=> SELECT * FROM my_table; 
+-------+--------+ 
| first | second | 
+-------+--------+ 
|     1 | one    | 
|     2 | two    | 
|     3 | three  | 
|     4 | four   | 
+-------+--------+ 
(4 rows)  
=> \pset border 0
 Border style is 0. 
=> SELECT * FROM my_table; 
first second 
----- ------ 
    1 one 
    2 two 
    3 three 
    4 four 
(4 rows) 
=> \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 second, first FROM my_table; 
one,1 
two,2 
three,3 
four,4

Alternatively, use the short commands:

=> \a \t \ x Output format is aligned. 
Tuples only is off.
Expanded display is on. 
=> SELECT * FROM my_table; 
first  | 1 
second | one 
-------+----------- 
first  | 2 
second | two 
-------+----------- 
first  | 3 
second | three 
-------+----------- 
first  | 4 
second | four