Dynamic PL/SQL & substr, instr function

Question

I am having trouble with incorporating the SUBSTR and INSTR functions into my dynamic PL/SQL procedure using Oracle 8i.
I have data that is packed into one column seperated by a delimiter (':')
I need to seperate the data to use indicidual pieces.
If I run my query in general -
select substr(secondcol, 1, instr(secondcol, ':',1,1)-1) ONE,
substr(secondcol,instr(secondcol, ':',1,1)+1,instr(secondcol, ':',1,1)-1) TWO,
substr(secondcol,instr(secondcol, ':',1,2)+1,instr(secondcol, ':',1,1)-1) THREE,
substr(secondcol,instr(secondcol, ':',1,3)+1,instr(secondcol, ':',1,1)-1) FOUR
from temp_table where firstcol=100
This works and gives me the right result.
e.g
DATA :
Firstcol SECONDCOL
100 1:2:3:4
Result:
ONE TWO THREE FOUR
1 2 3 4
However to make this generic if I use it in a function passing it a parameter which has ':' delimited data it does not work and gives me errors. All I want is to get the output as a string that looks like my query above so I can use it in my proc.
create or replace function MYJUNK(TFieldNew IN CHAR)
RETURN CHAR IS
UpdateString Varchar2(100);
BEGIN
UpdateString := 'First=substr('||TFieldNew||', 1, instr('||TFieldNew||', '':'',1,1)-1) ONE, ';
UpdateString := UpdateString || ' Second=substr('||TFieldNew||', instr('||TFieldNew||', '':'',1,2)+1, instr('||TFieldNew||', '':'',1,1)-1) TWO, ';
UpdateString := UpdateString || ' third=substr('||TFieldNew||', instr('||TFieldNew||', '':'',1,3)+1, instr('||TFieldNew||', '':'',1,1)-1) THREE from temp_table';
return UpdateString;
END;
The function compiles but gives me run time errors
This is what I get -
SQL> select myjunk('''1:2:3:4''') from dual;
select myjunk('''1:2:3:4''') from dual
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error
ORA-06512: at "SGHDTA.MYJUNK", line 8
ORA-06512: at line 1

Answer 1

You are getting an error because updatestring is longer than the 100 characters you defined it as. Try using VARCHAR2(4000). Also, if you are trying to generate the sql statement, you need to get rid of first=, second= and third= when you build the string.
This is what your function returns. I put in line breaks for clarity:
First=substr('1:2:3:4', 1, instr('1:2:3:4', ':',1,1)-1) ONE,
Second=substr('1:2:3:4', instr('1:2:3:4', ':',1,2)+1, instr('1:2:3:4',':',1,1)-1) TWO, 
third=substr('1:2:3:4', instr('1:2:3:4', ':',1,3)+1,instr('1:2:3:4', ':',1,1)-1) THREE
from temp_tableIf you are trying to actually parse the column, then you need something more like:
create or replace procedure MYJUNK(TFieldNew IN VARCHAR2,out1 OUT VARCHAR2,
                                   out2 OUT VARCHAR2, out3 OUT VARCHAR2) is
BEGIN
   out1 := SUBSTR(TFieldNew,1, INSTR(TFieldNew,':',1,1)-1);
   out2 := SUBSTR(TFieldNew, INSTR(TFieldNew,':',1,2)+1, INSTR(TFieldNew,':',1,1)-1);
   out3 := SUBSTR(, INSTR(TFieldNew,':',1,3)+1, INSTR(TFieldNew,':',1,1)-1);
END;