How to get alternative strings in list of strings.

Question

Hi experts,
how to get alternative strings in list of strings.
eg
'country1, italy, country2, india, country3, paris, country4, scottland, country5, rome'
from the above list i need to fetch all the countries and their names separately.
like country1, country2, country3, country4, country5
italy, india, paris, scottland, rome
i am trying the above one in the below fashion
SELECT SUBSTR
          ('country1, italy, country2, india, country3, paris, country4, scottland, country5, rome',
           1,
             INSTR
                ('country1, italy, country2, india, country3, paris, country4, scottland, country5, rome',
                 1,
                 1
           - 1
  FROM DUAL
can you please any one help me

Answer 1

If you want the data to be more stuctured, and useful:
col col_name for a20
col col_value for a20
var inlist VARCHAR2(2000)
exec :inlist := 'country1, italy, country2, india, country3, paris, country4, scottland, country5, rome';
exec :inlist := replace(:inlist,' ')
select max(decode(mod(lvl,2),1,value)) col_name
      ,max(decode(mod(lvl,2),0,value)) col_value
from   (select substr(:InList,start_pos+1, end_pos-start_pos-1) value
              ,lvl
        from   (select :InList
                      ,case when level = 1 then
                         0
                       else
                         instr(:InList,',',1,level-1)
                       end start_pos
                       ,case when instr(:InList,',',1,level) = 0
                         then length(:InList)+1
                       else
                         instr(:InList,',',1,level)
                       end   end_pos
                     ,level lvl
                from   dual
                connect by level <=length(:InList)-length(replace(:InList,','))+1
group by ceil(lvl/2)
order by 1;
COL_NAME             COL_VALUE
country1             italy
country2             india
country3             paris
country4             scottland
country5             rome
Untested on 10g
Then you could stragg the rows together ...