SQL & PL/SQL

Hello everybody,


I have a question about directing query output into TXT file. At the beginning of my sql script file I write

SET TRIMSPOOL ON;
SET COLSEP '|';

This allows me to have the query result as a pipe delimited file. However, there are always several space characters between pipe and the columns, that is, for example instead of having

a1|b1|c1|d1
a2|b2|c2|d2
a3|b3|c2|d3

I obtain the following:

a1   |   b1   |   c1  |  d1
a2   |   b2   |   c2  |  d2
a3   |   b3   |   c2  |  d3

As long as you open this file with Excel, this is not really annoying, but the problem is that my TXT file is read directly by a KornShell script and these undesired space characters cause problem. Is there any way to get rid of them?


Thanks in advance,

Kind Regards,
Dariyoosh