Can't write right sql query by two tables

Question

Hello
Everyone,
I am trying to get a sql query by two tables,
table:container
<pre class="jive-pre">
from_dest_id     number
ship_from_desc     varchar
to_dest_id     number
</pre>
table: label_fromat (changeless)
<pre class="jive-pre">
SORT_ORDER     number
PREFIX     varchar2
VARIABLE_NAME varchar2
SUFFIX varchar2
LF_COMMENT varchar2
</pre>
the sql which i need is
a. table CONTAINER 's each column should have LABLE_FORMAT 's PREFIX before and SUFFIX back ,and these columns is connected
example : the query output should be like this :
<pre class="jive-pre">
PREFIX||from_dest_id||SUFFIX ||PREFIX||ship_from_desc||SUFFIX ||PREFIX|| to_dest_id||SUFFIX
</pre>
every PREFIX and SUFFIX are come from LABEL_FORMAT's column VARIABLE_NAME (they are different)
column SORT_ORDER decide the sequence, for the example above: Column from_dest_id order is 1, ship_from_desc is 2,to_dest_id is 3
b. table LABEL_FORMAT's column VARIABLE_NAME have values ('from_dest_id','ship_from_desc','to_dest_id')
If table CONTAINER only have one record i can do it myself,
But actually it is more than one record,I do not know how to do
May be this should be used PL/SQL,or a Function ,Cursor ,Procedure
I am not good at these
Any tips will be very helpful for me
Thanks
Saven

Answer 1

Hi, Saven,
Presenting data from multiple rows as a single string is called String Aggregation . This page:
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/StringAggregationTechniques.php
shows many ways to do it, suited to different requirements, and different versions of Oracle.
In Oracle 10 (and up) you can do this:
SELECT     REPLACE ( SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH ( f.prefix || ' '
                               || CASE  f.variable_name
                                    WHEN 'FROM_DEST_ID'
                                   THEN  from_dest_id
                                   WHEN 'SHIP_FROM_DESC'
                                   THEN  ship_from_desc
                                   WHEN 'TO_DEST_ID'
                                   THEN  to_dest_id
                                  END
                               || ' '
                               || f.suffix
                           , '~?'
          , '~?'
          )     AS output_txt
FROM          container     c
CROSS JOIN     label_format     f
WHERE          CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF     = 1
START WITH     f.sort_order     = 1
CONNECT BY     f.sort_order     = PRIOR f.sort_order + 1
     AND     c.from_dest_id     = PRIOR c.from_dest_id
saven wrote:If table CONTAINER only have one record i can do it myself,
But actually it is more than one record,I do not know how to do In that case, why did you post an example that only has one row in container?
The query above assumes
something in container (I used from_dest_id in the example above) is unique,
you don't mind having a space after prefix and before from_dest_id,
you want one row of output for every row in container, and
you can identify some string ('~?' in the example above) that never occurs in the concatenated data.