Display Options

The Browse Table Data dialog provides several ways to manipulate the display.

Format Options

A browse window has two format options, columnar and side label. You can switch between the two formats by clicking the or button on the browse window toolbar. The default format is columnar. Most of the examples throughout this manual are shown in columnar format.

Columnar

In columnar format, column names are displayed across the top of the browse window and the data is displayed in columns under the headings. Note that the headings for primary key column(s) are in bold type.

In the following example, the browse window shows several rows of data in columnar format.

browse file display, shown in columnar format

Side Label

In side label format, the column names are displayed down the left side of the browse window and a row of data is displayed to the right of the headings. The row number is noted in the status bar at the bottom of the browse window. Use the navigation buttons on the browse window toolbar to scroll to another row. Side label format focuses on a single row and can display more columns for the row than the columnar format. Side label format is also useful for browsing data in very wide columns.

In the following example, the browse window shows data in side label format.

browse file display, shown in side labels format

Column Data Display

Use the Column Data Display dialog to display a character or hexadecimal representation of data.

column data display shown in hex format

Data Offset

Displays the location of data, in bytes, from the beginning of the column or file. For a hexadecimal display of data in UTF-8 or multi-byte format, the number of bytes per line is displayed in parentheses, and if the number of characters displayed is greater or less than the number of characters displayed per row (as determined by the Characters per Row option), the offset and bytes per line are displayed in italic type.

Display Character

For character data, right-click a cell and select Display, Character from the shortcut menu to display the character representation of the data. For a CLOB, click the icon.

Display Hexadecimal

Right-click a cell and select Display, Hex from the shortcut menu to display the character and hexadecimal representations of the column data. For a LOB, click the icon.

The digits that make up the hexadecimal representation of each character are displayed on the lines below that character. For binary columns, the hexadecimal representation is displayed on two lines (the character line contains no data and is shaded). For CLOB columns, the hexadecimal representation includes all bytes, including carriage returns, line feeds, and the byte order mark (BOM).

For the hexadecimal display of character columns, the following applies:

  • UTF-16 and Extract File or Archive File data will display the hexadecimal representation on four lines.
  • UTF-8 or multi-byte data will display the character over the first byte, and a period will be displayed over any additional bytes. For example, the UTF-8 French character À is displayed as two bytes:

    À.
    C8
    30
    Note:
    • For data in multi-byte format (for example, Oracle JA16SJIS), the character and hexadecimal representations are each displayed in different fonts and may not be aligned.
    • For release 5.3 or earlier Extract Files and Archive Files, the hexadecimal representation is displayed on two lines only.

Options Button

Click the options button to display the following:

Characters per Row
Select the number of characters to display per row: 64, 128, 256, or 512.
Clear Data
Remove data from the row. Available when text can be modified only.
File Type
For CLOB data only. If the correct encoding scheme for the CLOB file is not displayed, select the encoding scheme, UTF-8 or UTF-16. For UTF-8, the hexadecimal representation is displayed on two lines. For UTF-16, the hexadecimal representation is displayed on four lines.

If a file does not include a byte order mark, the default encoding scheme is based on the data type, CLOB (UTF-8) or NCLOB (UTF-16).