Question

I need to write a procedure to normalize a record that have multiple tokens concatenated by one char. I need to obtain these tokens splitting the string and insert each one as a new record in a table. Does Oracle have something like a “split” function?

Answer 1

You have to roll your own. E.g.,

/* from :http://www.builderau.com.au/architect/database/soa/Create-functions-to-join-and-split-strings-in-Oracle/0,339024547,339129882,00.htm

select split('foo,bar,zoo') from dual;
select * from table(split('foo,bar,zoo'));

pipelined function is SQL only (no PL/SQL !)
*/

create or replace type split_tbl as table of varchar2(32767);
/
show errors

create or replace function split
(
    p_list varchar2,
    p_del varchar2 := ','
) return split_tbl pipelined
is
    l_idx    pls_integer;
    l_list    varchar2(32767) := p_list;
    l_value    varchar2(32767);
begin
    loop
        l_idx := instr(l_list,p_del);
        if l_idx > 0 then
            pipe row(substr(l_list,1,l_idx-1));
            l_list := substr(l_list,l_idx+length(p_del));

        else
            pipe row(l_list);
            exit;
        end if;
    end loop;
    return;
end split;
/
show errors;

/* An own implementation. */

create or replace function split2(
  list in varchar2,
  delimiter in varchar2 default ','
) return split_tbl as
  splitted split_tbl := split_tbl();
  i pls_integer := 0;
  list_ varchar2(32767) := list;
begin
  loop
    i := instr(list_, delimiter);
    if i > 0 then
      splitted.extend(1);
      splitted(splitted.last) := substr(list_, 1, i - 1);
      list_ := substr(list_, i + length(delimiter));
    else
      splitted.extend(1);
      splitted(splitted.last) := list_;
      return splitted;
    end if;
  end loop;
end;
/
show errors

declare
  got split_tbl;

  procedure print(tbl in split_tbl) as
  begin
    for i in tbl.first .. tbl.last loop
      dbms_output.put_line(i || ' = ' || tbl(i));
    end loop;
  end;

begin
  got := split2('foo,bar,zoo');
  print(got);
  print(split2('1 2 3 4 5', ' '));
end;
/