# Formatting of column aliases insufficient indentation

**URL:** <https://forums.toadworld.com/t/formatting-of-column-aliases-insufficient-indentation/39815>\
**Category:** Toad for Oracle - Beta\
**Created:** [August 7, 2017, 12:02am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/formatting-of-column-aliases-insufficient-indentation/39815 "2017-08-07T00:02:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kornelis.abe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@kornelis.abe](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/kornelis.abe)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 12:02am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/formatting-of-column-aliases-insufficient-indentation/39815/1 "2017-08-07T00:02:32Z")

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All,

I'm on Toad Beta 12.12.0.7.

On a select statement where some columns have an alias and some do not, I get the following result:

 ![20170807 formatting insert statement 1.png](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/quest/original/2X/d/d6da6079087004d2cbb3900e998c3f7f9e12eec0.png)

I think the source code would appear cleaner, better readable and better maintainable  
if the aliases lined up where they would have been if all columns had had an alias.

Now, since some of the un-aliased columns have longer definitions,  
the aliases and column definitions are intermingled in the same vertical 'column'.

Would this be a fixable issue?

Kind regards,  
Abe Kornelis  
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**Author:** ![avergison](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/quest/user_avatar/forums.toadworld.com/avergison/32/66_2.png) [@avergison](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/avergison)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/formatting-of-column-aliases-insufficient-indentation/39815/2 "2017-08-07T01:01:49Z")

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Abe,

“if all columns had an alias” : If I follow this rule then I would get the aliases aligned near the end of the last, long, replace(…) item, hence about near the right hand side of the window. Then we can easily have line overflow - unless we limit the movement of the alias column to avoid this. Also, the longer the distance between item and its alias, the harder to match them by the eye (much white space between short items and short aliases whenever there is at least one long name pushing the alias column to the right).

Is this reflecting your idea?

Thanks,  
Andre