Any idea what this function is meant for?

Question

DB version:10gR2
Have you guys any idea what this function does?
create or replace function separate_1
    in_list varchar2,
    in_del varchar2 := ','
) return split_tbl pipelined
is
    l_idx    pls_integer;
    l_list    varchar2(32767) := in_list;
    l_value    varchar2(32767);
begin
    loop
        l_idx := instr(l_list,in_del);
        if l_idx > 0 then
            pipe row(substr(l_list,1,l_idx-1));
            l_list := substr(l_list,l_idx+length(in_del));
        else
            pipe row(l_list);
            exit;
        end if;
    end loop;
    return;
end separate_1;The comment for this functions says that this is used to split a string delimited by a comma separator. But i didn't understand this function. Can this functionality be achieved without a table function?

Answer 1

user10450365 wrote:
DB version:10gR2
Have you guys any idea what this function does?Odd that. Apart from a couple of parameter name changes it looks almost identical to a function I posted a couple of years back...
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE split_tbl IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(32767);
  2  /
Type created.
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION split (p_list VARCHAR2, p_delim VARCHAR2:=' ') RETURN SPLIT_TBL PIPELINED IS
  2      l_idx    PLS_INTEGER;
  3      l_list   VARCHAR2(32767) := p_list;
  4      l_value  VARCHAR2(32767);
  5    BEGIN
  6      LOOP
  7        l_idx := INSTR(l_list, p_delim);
  8        IF l_idx > 0 THEN
  9          PIPE ROW(SUBSTR(l_list, 1, l_idx-1));
10          l_list := SUBSTR(l_list, l_idx+LENGTH(p_delim));
11        ELSE
12          PIPE ROW(l_list);
13          EXIT;
14        END IF;
15      END LOOP;
16      RETURN;
17    END SPLIT;
18  /
Function created.
SQL> SELECT column_value
  2  FROM TABLE(split('FRED,JIM,BOB,TED,MARK',','));
COLUMN_VALUE
FRED
JIM
BOB
TED
MARK