SQL & PL/SQL

Hi All,

I've been trying to find a post similar to my question on OTN but haven't been very successful. Found [this |http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=4231352&#4231352] but it’s not the right solution for me.

I want to convert a number (with two decimal places) to a string but keep the trailing zeros. The number can be of any length.

So for e.g.

Number String
1234.5 1234.50
323213.1 323213.10
9876.23 9876.23

Using a format mask in with the to_char function doesn’t work for me because the results are written to a text file using UTL_FILE and I don’t want any leading white spaces.

E.g.

Select to_char(1234.40, ‘9999999.99’) from dual
TO_CHAR(1232.70,99999999.99)
----------------------------
1232.70

As you can see the to_char only works partially. It keeps the two decimal places and adds a zero but then it also hads white space to the front of the number. I could change the format mask to '9999.99' but then if the number is 12345.12 or 123.12 it wouldn't work!

Thanks!