Column Group Values Function without using Analytics?

Question

I'm looking for a out-of-the-box Oracle SQL function that will visually group column values. (As shown in the Department column below).
I know that you can accomplish this using analytic lead/lag functions (also shown below), but I figure there must be another simpler, straight-forward function than this?
  SELECT   CASE
              WHEN LAG (deptno)
                      OVER (PARTITION BY deptno
                            ORDER BY ename) IS NULL
              THEN
                 deptno
           END department,
           ename,
           empno
    FROM   scott.emp   
ORDER BY   deptno,
           ename;
DEPARTMENT     ENAME     EMPNO
10          CLARK     7782
          KING     7839
          MILLER     7934
20          ADAMS     7876
          FORD     7902
          JONES     7566
          SCOTT     7788
          SMITH     7369
30          ALLEN     7499
          BLAKE     7698
          JAMES     7900
          MARTIN     7654
          TURNER     7844
          WARD     7521

Answer 1

Solution with model
select deptno  ,empno,ename,ind
from emp
model
partition by ( deptno dept )
dimension by (row_number()over(partition by deptno order by empno) rn)
measures(empno,deptno , ename, 0 ind)ignore nav
rules(deptno[rn>1]=null,
ind[rn>1]= 1
)order by dept,ind
SQL> select deptno  ,empno,ename,ind
  2  from emp
  3  model
  4  partition by ( deptno dept )
  5  dimension by (row_number()over(partition by deptno order by empno) rn)
  6  measures(empno,deptno , ename, 0 ind)ignore nav
  7  rules(deptno[rn>1]=null,
  8  ind[rn>1]= 1
  9  )order by dept,ind
10  /
    DEPTNO      EMPNO ENAME             IND
        10       7782 CLARK               0
                 7934 MILLER              1
                 7839 KING                1
        20       7369 SMITH               0
                 7566 JONES               1
                 7902 FORD                1
                 7876 ADAMS               1
                 7788 SCOTT               1
        30       7499 ALLEN               0
                 7900 JAMES               1
                 7844 TURNER              1
                 7698 BLAKE               1
                 7654 MARTIN              1
                 7521 WARD                1
                 4568 salim               0
15 rows selected.
SQL> Edited by: Salim Chelabi on Mar 31, 2009 3:33 PM