Help with formatting multiline output into comma delimited ordered output

Question

I have 2 tables:
SQL> desc table_1;
Name Null? Type
===================================
ID NOT NULL NUMBER
DATA1 NOT NULL VARCHAR2(440)
DATA2 NOT NULL VARCHAR2(1024)
SQL> desc table_2;
Name Null? Type
===================================
ID NOT NULL NUMBER
ATTNAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(255)
ATTVAL                          VARCHAR2 (4000)
DATA1 NOT NULL CHAR(1)
DATA2                          VARCHAR2 (2000)
DATA3                          VARCHAR2 (255)
I need to get ATTVAL from where e.g. ATTNAME=att_name1 to ATTNAME=att_name6 from every entry (with its unique ID), and format the output into comma delimited format in e.g. this order:
att_val1,att_val3,att_val6,att_val4,att_val5,att_val6
So e.g. for entry with ID "9812" from the query below, the output I need would be:
187,179,156,134,1436,1809
What I've got so far is as follows:
SQL> SELECT id,attname,attval FROM table_2 WHERE id in (SELECT id from table_1 WHERE data2='xxx')
AND attname in ('att_name1','att_name3','att_name6','att_name4','att_name5','att_name6');
ID               ATTNAME               ATTVAL
===============================
1970 att_name1 123
1970 att_name2 abc
1970 att_name3 1234
1970 att_name4 def
1970 att_name5 1134
1970 att_name6 ghj
9812 att_name4 134
9812 att_name5 1436
9812 att_name3 156
9812 att_name1 187
9812 att_name2 179
9812 att_name6 1809
77 att_name1 1980
77 att_name5 1867
77 att_name3 174
77 att_name4 1345
77 att_name2 1345
77 att_name6 1345
but I don't know how to format the output comma limited in certain order. (or if this is the best way of getting the data out)
Would someone have idea how this could be done?

Answer 1

846954 wrote:
Thanks Frank!
I got much further now :).
I've got Oracle 10g So I used the "SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH" for my query.
Now I get the output in the format I want, however, it comes out in the order that the attributes are (which is pretty random).The values you posted are in order: 'attval1' < 'attval2' < ...
So I'm using this now(had to use "|" as separator because SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH would not work with comma due to some of the attval having comma in them ):The values you posted don't contain and commas.
You're hiding what the problem is. It would really help if you posted actual data. It always helps if you post CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements for a little sample data, and the results you want from that data.
Assuming you really have something that has to be in a certain order, and that order is not based on anything in the values themselves, then DECODE might be a good way to do it. Storing the sort value in a table might be even better.
It looks like you were using an Oracle 9 exanple. In Oracle 10, using SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH is simpler:
SELECT     id
,     LTRIM ( SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH (attval, '|')
           , '|'
           )          AS attvals
FROM     (
          SELECT     id
          ,     attval
          ,     ROW_NUMBER () OVER ( PARTITION BY  id
                              ORDER BY          DECODE (...)
                            )     AS curr
          WHERE     id     IN (
                         SELECT  id
                         FROM     table_1
                         WHERE     data2     = 'xxx'
          AND     attname     IN ('attname1','attname2','attname3','attname4','attname5','attname6')
WHERE     CONNECT_BY_ISLEAF     = 1
START WITH     curr     = 1
CONNECT BY     curr     = PRIOR curr + 1
     AND     id     = PRIOR id
;You don't need two almost-identical ROW_NUMBERs; one will do just fine.