String to Row: Delimiter as part of the value

Question

My DB Version - 10.2.0.4.0
I have a string like this
with t
as
select q'['My column',LPAD(TRIM(my_column),4,'0'),10,10000]' str
  from dual
select * from tI am looking for a SQL solution that will convert this string into row like this
'My column'
LPAD(TRIM(my_column),4,'0')
10
10000Normal way to convert delimited string to row would be like this
with t
as
select q'['My column',LPAD(TRIM(my_column),4,'0'),10,10000]' str
  from dual
select regexp_substr(str,'[^,]+',1,level) val
  from t
connect by level <= length(str)-length(replace(str,','))+1But this would result in
'My column'
LPAD(TRIM(my_column)
4
'0')
10
10000 But this is incorrect. So any idea how to solve it?

Answer 1

Karthick_Arp wrote:
I totally understand. But we should also accept the fact that at times we get such crazy stuff to work with.
Just hoping that some one comes up with a super cool sql to do this ;)Something like this perhaps?
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  with t as (select q'['My column',LPAD(TRIM(my_column),4,'0'),10,10000]' str from dual)
  2      ,x as (select regexp_substr(str, '[^(]+', 1, rownum) str, rownum as lvl
  3             from t
  4             connect by rownum <= length(regexp_replace(str, '[^(]'))+1
  5            )
  6      ,y as (select x.str as orig_str, lvl
  7                   ,replace(regexp_replace(x.str, '[^\)]+$'),',','~')||regexp_substr(x.str, '[^\)]+$') as str2
  8             from x
  9            )
10      ,z as (select ltrim(sys_connect_by_path(str2, '('),'(') as str
11             from y
12             where connect_by_isleaf = 1
13             connect by lvl = prior lvl + 1
14             start with lvl = 1
15            )
16  --
17  select rownum rn, replace(regexp_substr(str, '[^,]+', 1, rownum),'~',',') str
18  from z
19* connect by rownum <= length(regexp_replace(str, '[^,]'))+1
SQL> /
        RN STR
         1 'My column'
         2 LPAD(TRIM(my_column),4,'0')
         3 10
         4 10000
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  with t as (select q'['My column',LPAD(TRIM(SUBSTR(my_column,4)),4,'0'),10,SUBSTR('FRED',4),10000]' str from dual)
  2      ,x as (select regexp_substr(str, '[^(]+', 1, rownum) str, rownum as lvl
  3             from t
  4             connect by rownum <= length(regexp_replace(str, '[^(]'))+1
  5            )
  6      ,y as (select x.str as orig_str, lvl
  7                   ,replace(regexp_replace(x.str, '[^\)]+$'),',','~')||regexp_substr(x.str, '[^\)]+$') as str2
  8             from x
  9            )
10      ,z as (select ltrim(sys_connect_by_path(str2, '('),'(') as str
11             from y
12             where connect_by_isleaf = 1
13             connect by lvl = prior lvl + 1
14             start with lvl = 1
15            )
16  --
17  select rownum rn, replace(regexp_substr(str, '[^,]+', 1, rownum),'~',',') str
18  from z
19* connect by rownum <= length(regexp_replace(str, '[^,]'))+1
SQL> /
        RN STR
         1 'My column'
         2 LPAD(TRIM(SUBSTR(my_column,4)),4,'0')
         3 10
         4 SUBSTR('FRED',4)
         5 10000
SQL>Seems to work, but don't hold me to that. :D