Count a certain sign in a string

Question

Hello Forum,
i have a the following query:
-> select doc_ref from file_note where document_nr is not null;
It returns me a result set like this:
DOC_REF
19.01, 13.01
18.01, 18.04, 20.01.01, 20.01.02
05.01, 14.02, 13.01, 17.01, 14.01, 10.05, 15.01
05.01.02
14.01, 14.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.03, 10.04, 10.07
and so on
Does anybody know, how can i count the commas per row.
This means on the first row there is one comma, on the second are three commas.
How can i build an SQL to retrieve this kind of information.
Regards Stefan

Answer 1

Oracle 11g
with t as (select '19.01, 13.01' col1 from dual
union select '18.01, 18.04, 20.01.01, 20.01.02' from dual
union select '05.01, 14.02, 13.01, 17.01, 14.01, 10.05, 15.01' from dual
union select '05.01.02' from dual
union select '14.01, 14.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.03, 10.04, 10.07' from dual)
SELECT col1, REGEXP_COUNT(col1,',') from t
05.01, 14.02, 13.01, 17.01, 14.01, 10.05, 15.01     6
05.01.02                                                              0
14.01, 14.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.03, 10.04, 10.07     6
18.01, 18.04, 20.01.01, 20.01.02                                 3
19.01, 13.01                                                              1 Oracle 9i:
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  with t as (select '19.01, 13.01' col1 from dual
  2  union select '18.01, 18.04, 20.01.01, 20.01.02' from dual
  3  union select '05.01, 14.02, 13.01, 17.01, 14.01, 10.05, 15.01' from dual
  4  union select '05.01.02' from dual
  5  union select '14.01, 14.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.03, 10.04, 10.07' from dual)
  6* SELECT col1, LENGTH(col1) - LENGTH(REPLACE(col1,',')) no_of_commas from t
SQL> /
COL1                                            NO_OF_COMMAS
05.01, 14.02, 13.01, 17.01, 14.01, 10.05, 15.01            6
05.01.02                                                   0
14.01, 14.02, 10.01, 10.02, 10.03, 10.04, 10.07            6
18.01, 18.04, 20.01.01, 20.01.02                           3
19.01, 13.01                                               1
5 rows selected.
SQL> Edited by: AP on Aug 19, 2010 7:49 AM