Convert comma separated string to array in PL/SQL

Question

How do I convert a comma separated string to a array?

I have the input \'1,2,3\' , and I need to convert it into an array.

Answer 1

Simple Code

    create or replace function get_token(text_is varchar2, token_in number, delim_is varchar2 := ';') return varchar2 is
       text_ls varchar2(2000);
       spos_ln number;
       epos    _ln number;
    begin
       text_ls := delim_is || text_is || rpad(delim_is, token_in, delim_is);
       spos_ln := instr(text_ls, delim_is, 1, token_in);
       epos_ln := instr(text_ls, delim_is, 1, token_in+1);
       return substr(text_ls, spos_ln+1, epos_ln-spos_ln-1);
    end get_token;

Answer 2

here is another easier option

select to_number(column_value) as IDs from xmltable('1,2,3,4,5');

Answer 3

I know Stack Overflow frowns on pasting URLs without explanations, but this particular page has a few really good options:

http://www.oratechinfo.co.uk/delimited_lists_to_collections.html

I particularly like this one, which converts the delimited list into a temporary table you can run queries against:

/* Create the output TYPE, here using a VARCHAR2(100) nested table type */

SQL> CREATE TYPE test_type AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(100);
  2  /

Type created.

/* Now, create the function.*/

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_convert(p_list IN VARCHAR2)
  2    RETURN test_type
  3  AS
  4    l_string       VARCHAR2(32767) := p_list || ',';
  5    l_comma_index  PLS_INTEGER;
  6    l_index        PLS_INTEGER := 1;
  7    l_tab          test_type := test_type();
  8  BEGIN
  9    LOOP
 10      l_comma_index := INSTR(l_string, ',', l_index);
 11      EXIT WHEN l_comma_index = 0;
 12      l_tab.EXTEND;
 13      l_tab(l_tab.COUNT) := SUBSTR(l_string, l_index, l_comma_index - l_index);
 14      l_index := l_comma_index + 1;
 15    END LOOP;
 16    RETURN l_tab;
 17  END f_convert;
 18  /

Function created.

---

/* Prove it works */

SQL> SELECT * FROM TABLE(f_convert('AAA,BBB,CCC,D'));

COLUMN_VALUE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AAA
BBB
CCC
D

4 rows selected.

Answer 4

I was looking for a similar solution where I had multi-byte characters (hyphen, whitespace, underscore) in comma separated lists. So dbms_utility.comma_to_table didn't work for me.

declare
  curr_val varchar2 (255 byte);
  input_str varchar2 (255 byte);
  remaining_str varchar2 (255 byte);
begin
  remaining_str := input_str || ',dummy';  -- this value won't output
  while (regexp_like (remaining_str, '.+,.+'))
  loop
    curr_val := substr (remaining_str, 1, instr (remaining_str, ',') - 1);
    remaining_str = substr (remaining_str, instr (remaining_str, ',') + 1);
    dbms_output.put_line (curr_val);
  end loop;
end;

This is not an expert answer so I hope someone would improve this answer.

Answer 5

Using a pipelined table function:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE test_type
  2  AS
  3    TABLE OF VARCHAR2(100)
  4  /

Type created.

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION comma_to_table(
  2      p_list IN VARCHAR2)
  3    RETURN test_type PIPELINED
  4  AS
  5    l_string LONG := p_list || ',';
  6    l_comma_index PLS_INTEGER;
  7    l_index PLS_INTEGER := 1;
  8  BEGIN
  9    LOOP
 10      l_comma_index := INSTR(l_string, ',', l_index);
 11      EXIT
 12    WHEN l_comma_index = 0;
 13      PIPE ROW ( TRIM(SUBSTR(l_string, l_index, l_comma_index - l_index)));
 14      l_index := l_comma_index                                + 1;
 15    END LOOP;
 16  RETURN;
 17  END comma_to_table;
 18  /

Function created.

Let's see the output:

SQL> SELECT *
  2  FROM TABLE(comma_to_table('12 3,456,,,,,abc,def'))
  3  /

COLUMN_VALUE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 3
456




abc
def

8 rows selected.

SQL>

Answer 6

A quick search on my BBDD took me to a function called split:

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;AA 
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;

I don't know if it'll be of use, but we found it here...