Data saved with a colon, how to read it?

Question

Hello,
I have a report in ApEx with a multiple selection box. When I make more than one selection, it will save the data seperated with a colon. In my table it will look like this:
ID NAME SHR_ID_FROM
1 TEST 1:3
Where in the selection column the two values are stored. These numbers are linked to a name somewhere else in the database. When I have only one selection, there is no error and the name is given correctly. The report will then look like this:
ID NAME SHR_ID_FROM
1 TEST SELECTION1
When I have more than one selection and data is saved with colon, I cannot get the report to give me the data I need. It will give the ORA-01722: Invalid Number error.
I want the report to give me the following:
ID NAME SHR_ID_FROM
1 TEST SELECTION1(linked to number 1), SELECTION3(linked to selection 3)
So it has to give all selections. I am using the following SQL code to view the report
SELECT
"SRR_SERVICES"."ID" "ID",
"SRR_SERVICES"."NAME" "NAME",
(select "SRR_RQH"."NAME"
from "SRR_RQH"
where "SRR_RQH"."ID" = "SRR_SERVICES"."SHR_ID_FROM"
) as "ServiceHandler Van",
...... - rest of code -
I think the error lies in this line:
where "SRR_RQH"."ID" = "SRR_SERVICES"."SHR_ID_FROM"
And I believe the solution should be something like I have to split each number, remove the colon and make sure it is send to the report with the use of a comma to seperate each name. But my sql knowledge is not very good, so I have no clue on how to solve this issue.
Thanks,
Wijnand
Edited by: user8726418 on 15-sep-2010 1:38

Answer 1

Your design to store multiple values in the same column will require a lot of work to maintain. To access the different values you will have to parse out each one and compare it to the join column using some compicated function calls. It should be easier to use multiple columns for multiple values and hard-code the table joins using outer joins if necessary - but this can work only if you have a very small list of multiple values.
A cleaner approach might be to create a relation with the multiple values and use table joins to put the data together, such as (untested)
ID1 NAME SHR_ID_FROM
1   TEST 1:3
ID1 SHR_ID_FROM
1  1
1  3
ID2 DESCRIPTION
1  TEST SELECTION1
3   SELECTION3Your query would join the first to the second by ID1in both tables and SHR_ID_FROM to ID2 in the second and third tables.
BTW, to avoid confusion you could give "ID" a more meaningful name like "entity_id" or "description_id"