How to seperate a delimited string into a seperate column

Say I have the following list in a column called authors
"Simpson, Homer//Flintstone, Fred//Jetson, George//Griffin, Peter"
How can I parse this list to be just Simpson, Flintstone, Jetson, Griffin?
I have rows that have 20 names like this.
thank you for any help

are you looking for columns or rows?
here is columns
WITH t AS
(select 'Simpson, Homer//Flintstone, Fred//Jetson, George//Griffin, Peter' txt from dual
SELECT
regexp_substr( txt,'[^//]+',1,1) column1,
regexp_substr( txt,'[^//]+',1,2) column2,
regexp_substr( txt,'[^//]+',1,3) column3,
regexp_substr( txt,'[^//]+',1,4) column4
regexp_substr( txt,'[^//]+',1,5) column5
FROM
t
COLUMN1 COLUMN2 COLUMN3 COLUMN4
Simpson, Homer Flintstone, Fred Jetson, George Griffin, Peteras rows
WITH t AS
(select 'Simpson, Homer//Flintstone, Fred//Jetson, George//Griffin, Peter' txt from dual
SELECT
regexp_substr( txt,'[^//]+',1,level) column1
from t connect by level <= regexp_count(txt,'//')+1
COLUMN1
Simpson, Homer
Flintstone, Fred
Jetson, George
Griffin, PeterEdited by: pollywog on Dec 15, 2010 3:12 PM

Similar Messages

How to split a delimited string into an array...

I have a delimited string coming in to a stored procedure (SP) for vb.net that needs to be parsed/converted into multi-dimensional arrays. The reason I am using delimited string because I do not know how to pass arrays to oracle SP from vb.net using ODP or MPO (Microsoft's Provider for Oracle).
My delimited string looks something like this: "level1_1|level2_1:level3_1;level3_2|level2_2:level3_1;level3_2~Level1_2|level2_2:level3_1"
So, its going to be 3d array. I would greatly appreciate if anyone could help me solving this puzzle. Any examples would be a great help.
Thanks for everything in advance,
Vincent

Hi Andrew,
I appreciate your response. Currently I use "Microsoft provider for Oracle" to connect to Oracle Database because when I started with my application there wasn't ODP (Oracle Data Provider for .Net) available. So, I used Microsoft provider and still using it.
I know how to use arrays in .Net but the problem is I can not find the Oracle Type to pass the array to Oralce Stored Procedure using this provider.
It would be very helpful if someone shows me the syntax for both to receive from oracle and transport to Oracle. I haven't tried using ODP yet. May be now its the time to see how it works.
And of course, your link was very helpful but I am already doing that (which is very slow for multi-dimentional array). So, I thought there might be a built in function in oracle which does that. Because most of the programming languages does have built in function for this conversion. for example: Split() in vb, java, javascript etc.
Anyway, if anyone finds any clues as to how to pass milti-dimentional arrays from .Net (microsoft) to oracle stored procedure please, please let me know how to do that.
-Vincent

How to split a delimited string into rows

Hi Everyone,
I have a field in my EMPLOYEE table named "OLD_USER_IDS" which stores all the old system ID's that the employee was once assigned to. This field is comma separated like so: "USERID1,USERID2,USERID3". My question is: how can I write a SELECT query that splits each individual User ID into its own row?
For example:
EMP_ID USER_ID
10 USERID1
10 USERID2
12 USERID3
15 USERID4
15 USERID5
15 USERID6
Thank You
-Sam

I think you should search this forum first for similar questions. I keep track of some interesting stuffs posted in this forum in a file, and from that
WITH t AS (SELECT 'USER1,USER2,USER3' str FROM DUAL
select substr(str,
                    decode(level,
                           1,
                           1,
                           instr(str, ',', 1, level - 1) + 1),
                    decode(instr(str, ',', 1, level),
                           0,
                           length(str),
                           instr(str, ',', 1, level) -
                           decode(level,
                                  1,
                                  0,
                                  instr(str, ',', 1, level - 1)) - 1)) the_value
        from (select str from t)
      connect by level <=
                 length(str) - length(replace(str, ',')) + 1;

How do you turn a string into an integer?

how do you turn a string into an integer?
for ex, if i wanted to turn the string "5" into the integer 5, how would i do that?

String stringNumber="5";
try{
int number=Integer.parseInt(stringNumber);
}catch(NumberFormatException e){
System.out.println("The string "+stringNumber+" must be a number!");
}

How to convert a delimited string to XML?

Hi there,
Please help me to convert a pipe delimited string into XML, e.g.
string -------SubName:abc|SuvValue:123|
required XML:
<ROWS>
<ROW>
<SubName>abc</SubName>
<SubValue>123</SubValue>
</ROW>
</ROWS>
or
string -------abc|123|
required XML:
<ROWS>
<ROW>
<SubName>abc</SubName>
<SubValue>123</SubValue>
</ROW>
</ROWS>
-----i am trying to first parse the string into a table type and then using the DBMS_XMLGen.getXML function but unable to get values from table type...
any prompt response is highly appriciated...
Regards, Hassan

Hi Hassan,
If your version supports it (ie 10gR2 and upwards), you can use XQuery to directly parse the string and generate the XML :
SQL> SELECT XMLQuery(
2   '<ROWS>
3    <ROW> {
4     for $i in ora:tokenize($str,"\|")
5     return
6      if ($i) then element {substring-before($i,":")} {substring-after($i,":")}
7      else ()
8   } </ROW>
9   </ROWS>'
10   passing sys_xmlgen('SubName:abc|SubValue:123|') as "str"
11   returning content
12 ).getClobVal()
13 FROM dual;
XMLQUERY('<ROWS><ROW>{FOR$IINO
<ROWS><ROW><SubName>abc</SubName><SubValue>123</SubValue></ROW></ROWS>
Each element is built based on its name from the input string.

How can i write a string into a specified pos of a file?

How can i write a string into a specified pos of a file without read all file into ram and write the whole file again?
for example:
the content of file is:
name=123
state=456
i want to modify the value of name with 789
(write to file without read all file into ram)
How can i do it? thank you

take this as an idea. it actually does what i decribed above. you sure need to make some modifications so it works for your special need. If you use it and add any valuable code to it or find any bugs, please let me know.
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
* Copyright (c) 2002 Frank Fischer <[email protected]>
* All rights reserved. See the LICENSE for usage conditions
* ObjectProperties.java
* version 1.0, 2002-09-12
* author Frank Fischer <[email protected]>
public class ObjectProperties
     // the seperator between the param-name and the value in the prooperties file
     private static final String separator = "=";
     // the vector where we put the arrays in
     private Vector PropertiesSet;
     // the array where we put the param/value pairs in
     private String propvaluepair[][];
     // the name of the object the properties file is for
     public String ObjectPropertiesFileName;
     // the path to the object'a properties file
     public String ObjectPropertiesDir;
     // reference to the properties file
     public File PropertiesFile;
     // sign for linebreak - depends on platforms
     public static final String newline = System.getProperty("line.separator");
     public ObjectProperties(String ObjectPropertiesFileName, String ObjectPropertiesDir, ObjectPropertiesManager ObjectPropertiesManager)
     //     System.out.println("Properties Objekt wird erzeugt: "+ObjectPropertiesFileName);
          this.ObjectPropertiesFileName = ObjectPropertiesFileName;
          this.ObjectPropertiesDir = ObjectPropertiesDir;
          // reference to the properties file
          PropertiesFile = new File(ObjectPropertiesDir+ObjectPropertiesFileName);
          // vector to put the param/value pair-array in
          PropertiesSet = new Vector();
     //     System.out.println("Properties File Backup wird erzeugt: "+name);
          backup();
     //     System.out.println("Properties File wird eingelesen: "+PropertiesFile);
          try
               //opening stream to file for read operations
               FileInputStream FileInput = new FileInputStream(PropertiesFile);
               DataInputStream DataInput = new DataInputStream(FileInput);
               String line = "";
               //reading line after line of the properties file
               while ((line = DataInput.readLine()) != null)
                    //just making sure there are no whitespaces at the beginng or end of the line
                    line = cutSpaces(line);
                    if (line.length() > 0)
                         //$ indicates a param-name
                         if (line.startsWith("$"))
                              // array to store a param/value pair in
                              propvaluepair = new String[1][2];
                              //get the param-name
                              String parameter = line.substring(1, line.indexOf(separator)-1);
                              //just making sure there are no whitespaces at the beginng or end of the variable
                              parameter = cutSpaces(parameter);
                              //get the value
                              String value = line.substring(line.indexOf(separator)+1, line.length());
                              //just making sure there are no whitespaces at the beginng or end of the variable
                              value = cutSpaces(value);
                              //put the param-name and the value into an array
                              propvaluepair[0][0] = parameter;
                              propvaluepair[0][1] = value;
                         //     System.out.println("["+ObjectPropertiesFileName+"] key/value gefunden:"+parameter+";"+value);
                              //and finaly put the array into the vector
                              PropertiesSet.addElement(propvaluepair);
          // error handlig
          catch (IOException e)
               System.out.println("ERROR occured while reading property file for: "+ObjectPropertiesFileName);
               System.out.println("ERROR CODE: "+e);
               // System.out.println("in ObjectProperties");
     // function to be called to get the value of a specific paramater 'param'
     // if the specific paramater is not found '-1' is returned to indicate that case
     public String getParam(String param)
          // the return value indicating that the param we are searching for is not found
          String v = "-1";
          // looking up the whole Vector
          for (int i=0; i<PropertiesSet.size(); i++)
               //the String i want to read the values in again
               String s[][] = new String[1][2];
               // trying to get out the array from the vector again
               s = (String[][]) PropertiesSet.elementAt(i);
               // comparing the param-name we're looking for with the param-name in the array we took out the vector at position i
               if (s[0][0].equals(param) == true)
                    //if the param-names are the same, we look up the value and write it in the return variable
                    v = s[0][1];
                    // making sure the for loop ends
                    i = PropertiesSet.size();
          // giving the value back to the calling procedure
          return v;
     // function to be called to set the value of a specific paramater 'param'
     public void setParam(String param, String value)
          // looking up the whole Vector for the specific param if existing or not
          for (int i=0; i<PropertiesSet.size(); i++)
               //the String i want to read the values in again
               String s[][] = (String[][]) PropertiesSet.elementAt(i);
               // comparing the param-name we're looking for with the param-name in the array we took out the vector at position i
               if (s[0][0].equals(param) == true)
                    //if the param-names are the same, we remove the param/value pair so we can add the new pair later in
                    PropertiesSet.removeElementAt(i);
                    // making sure the for loop ends
                    i = PropertiesSet.size();
          // if we land here, there is no such param in the Vector, either there was none form the beginng
          // or there was one but we took it out.
          // create a string array to place the param/value pair in
          String n[][] = new String[1][2];
          // add the param/value par
          n[0][0] = param;
          n[0][1] = value;
          // add the string array to the vector
          PropertiesSet.addElement(n);
     // function to save all data in the Vector to the properties file
     // must be done because properties might be changing while runtime
     // and changes are just hold in memory while runntime
     public void store()
          backup();
          String outtofile = "# file created/modified on "+createDate("-")+" "+createTime("-")+newline+newline;
          try
               //opening stream to file for write operations
               FileOutputStream PropertiesFileOuput = new FileOutputStream(PropertiesFile);
               DataOutputStream PropertiesDataOutput = new DataOutputStream(PropertiesFileOuput);
               // looping over all param/value pairs in the vector
               for (int i=0; i<PropertiesSet.size(); i++)
                    //the String i want to read the values in
                    String s[][] = new String[1][2];
                    // trying to get out the array from the vector again
                    s = (String[][]) PropertiesSet.elementAt(i);
                    String param = "$"+s[0][0];
                    String value = s[0][1];
                    outtofile += param+" = "+value+newline;
               outtofile += newline+"#end of file"+newline;
               try
                    PropertiesDataOutput.writeBytes(outtofile);
               catch (IOException e)
                    System.out.println("ERROR while writing to Properties File: "+e);
          catch (IOException e)
               System.out.println("ERROR occured while writing to the property file for: "+ObjectPropertiesFileName);
               System.out.println("ERROR CODE: "+e);
     // sometimes before overwritting old value it's a good idea to backup old values
     public void backup()
          try
               // reference to the original properties file
               File OriginalFile = new File(ObjectPropertiesDir+ObjectPropertiesFileName);
               File BackupFile = new File(ObjectPropertiesDir+"/backup/"+ObjectPropertiesFileName+".backup");
               //opening stream to original file for read operations
               FileInputStream OriginalFileInput = new FileInputStream(OriginalFile);
               DataInputStream OriginalFileDataInput = new DataInputStream(OriginalFileInput);
               //opening stream to backup file for write operations
               FileOutputStream BackupFileOutput = new FileOutputStream(BackupFile);
               DataOutputStream BackupFileDataOutput = new DataOutputStream(BackupFileOutput);
          //     String content = "";
               String line = "";
               // do till end of file
               while ((line = OriginalFileDataInput.readLine()) != null)
                    BackupFileDataOutput.writeBytes(line+newline);
          // error handlig
          catch (IOException e)
               System.out.println("ERROR occured while back up for property file: "+ObjectPropertiesFileName);
               System.out.println("ERROR CODE: "+e);
               System.out.println("this is a serious error - the server must be stopped");
     private String cutSpaces(String s)
          while (s.startsWith(" "))
               s = s.substring(1, s.length());
          while (s.endsWith(" "))
               s = s.substring(0, s.length()-1);
          return s;
     public String createDate(String seperator)
          Date datum = new Date();
          String currentdatum = new String();
          int year, month, date;
          year = datum.getYear()+1900;
          month = datum.getMonth()+1;
          date = datum.getDate();
          currentdatum = ""+year+seperator;
          if (month < 10)
               currentdatum = currentdatum+"0"+month+seperator;
          else
               currentdatum = currentdatum+month+seperator;
          if (date < 10)
               currentdatum = currentdatum+"0"+date;
          else
               currentdatum = currentdatum+date;
          return currentdatum;
     public String createTime(String seperator)
          Date time = new Date();
          String currenttime = new String();
          int hours, minutes, seconds;
          hours = time.getHours();
          minutes = time.getMinutes();
          seconds = time.getSeconds();
          if (hours < 10)
               currenttime = currenttime+"0"+hours+seperator;
          else
               currenttime = currenttime+hours+seperator;
          if (minutes < 10)
               currenttime = currenttime+"0"+minutes+seperator;
          else
               currenttime = currenttime+minutes+seperator;
          if (seconds < 10)
               currenttime = currenttime+"0"+seconds;
          else
               currenttime = currenttime+seconds;
          return currenttime;

How do I split a comma delimited string into an array.

I have a string that I am passing into a function that is Comma delimited. I want to split the string into an array. Is there a way to do this.
Thanks in advance.

trouble confirmed on 10gR1 and 10gR2
works with 'a,b,c' and also with ' "1" , "2" , "3" '
does not work with '1,2,3'
throwing ORA-6512

How to parse a delimited string and insert into different columns?

Hi Experts,
I need to parse a delimited string ':level1_value:level2_value:level3_value:...' to 'level1_value', 'level2_value', etc., and insert them into different columns of one table as one row:
Table_Level (Level1, Level2, Level3, ...)
I know I can use substr and instr to get level value one by one and insert into Table, but I'm wondering if there's better ways to do it?
Thanks!

user9954260 wrote:
However, there is one tiny problem - the delimiter from the source system is a '|' When I replace your test query with | as delimiter instead of the : it fails. Interestingly, if I use ; it works. See below:
with t as (
select 'str1|str2|str3||str5|str6' x from dual union all
select '|str2|str3|str4|str5|str6' from dual union all
select 'str1|str2|str3|str4|str5|' from dual union all
select 'str1|str2|||str5|str6' from dual)
select x,
regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*).*$','\1') y1,
regexp_replace(x,'^[^|]*|([^|]*).*$','\1') y2,
regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*|){2}([^|]*).*$','\2') y3,
regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*|){3}([^|]*).*$','\2') y4,
regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*|){4}([^|]*).*$','\2') y5,
regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*|){5}([^|]*).*$','\2') y6
from t;
The "bar" or "pipe" symbol is a special character, also called a metacharacter.
If you want to use it as a literal in a regular expression, you will need to escape it with a backslash character (\).
Here's the solution -
test@ORA11G>
test@ORA11G> --
test@ORA11G> with t as (
2    select 'str1|str2|str3||str5|str6' x from dual union all
3    select '|str2|str3|str4|str5|str6' from dual union all
4    select 'str1|str2|str3|str4|str5|' from dual union all
5    select 'str1|str2|||str5|str6' from dual)
6 --
7 select x,
8         regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*).*$','\1') y1,
9         regexp_replace(x,'^[^|]*\|([^|]*).*$','\1') y2,
10         regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*\|){2}([^|]*).*$','\2') y3,
11         regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*\|){3}([^|]*).*$','\2') y4,
12         regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*\|){4}([^|]*).*$','\2') y5,
13         regexp_replace(x,'^([^|]*\|){5}([^|]*).*$','\2') y6
14 from t;
X                         Y1      Y2      Y3      Y4      Y5      Y6
str1|str2|str3||str5|str6 str1    str2    str3            str5    str6
|str2|str3|str4|str5|str6         str2    str3    str4    str5    str6
str1|str2|str3|str4|str5| str1    str2    str3    str4    str5
str1|str2|||str5|str6     str1    str2                    str5    str6
4 rows selected.
test@ORA11G>
test@ORA11G>isotope
PS - it works for semi-colon character ";" because it is not a metacharacter. So its literal value is considered by the regex engine for matching.
Edited by: isotope on Feb 26, 2010 11:09 AM

How to break up a String into multiple array Strings?

How do I break up a string into a bunch of String arrays after the line ends.
For example,
JTextArea area = new JTextArea();
this is a string that i have entered in the area declared above
now here is another sting that is in the same string/text area
this is all being placed in one text field
Sting input = area.getText();
now how do I break that up into an array of strings after each line ends?

Ok I tested it out and it works.
So for future refrence to those that come by the same problem I had:
To split up a string when using a textfield or textarea so that you can store seperate sections of the string based on sperate lines, using the following code:
String text = area.getText() ;
String[] lines = text.split("\n") ;
This will store the following
this is all one
entered string
into two arrays
Cheers{
Edited by: watwatacrazy on Oct 21, 2008 11:06 AM
Edited by: watwatacrazy on Oct 21, 2008 11:16 AM
Edited by: watwatacrazy on Oct 21, 2008 11:16 AM

How do I convert a string into a decimal

I've been tryin to convert a string into decimal but I can't get it to work at all. I keep getting an exception.
I've tried all of these:
double myDouble = Double.valueOf(string).doubleValue();
int myint = Interger.parseInt(string);
float myfloat = Float.parseFloat(string);
I can't get anything to work.
That string i'm reading in is an array containing values with decimals. ex: -45.09348
All the above work fine if there is no decimal, but fails when it comes to one.
How do I go about doing this?
Thanks!

This works for me:String s = "-45.6789";
double d = Double.parseDouble(s);
System.out.println(d);Mark

How to get an xml string into a Document w/o escaping mark-up characters?

Hi,
I am using one of the latest xerces using Java. I am pretty sure I am using xerces-2.
I have an existing Document and I am trying to add more content to it. The new content itself is xml string. I am trying to insert this xml string into the document using document.createTextNode. I am able to insert, but somewhere it is escaping the mark-up characters (<,>,etc). When I convert the document into String, I can see, for example, <userData> instead of <userData>.
There is an alternative option to accomplish this by creating a new document with this xml string, get the root element, import this element into my document. Execution time for this procedure is very high - means, this is very bad in terms of time-wise performance.
Can any help on how to accomplish this (bringing an xml string into a document without escaping mark-up characters) in time-efficient way.

So you want to treat the contents of the string as XML rather than as text? Then you have to parse it.
Or if your reason for asking is just that you don't like the look of escaped text, then use a CDATA section to contain the text.

How can I convert a String into boolean?

I am facing difficulty in converting String into boolean.
For example, I have a few variable which i need user to input yes or no as the answer. But I uses string instead. Is there a way which i can ask them to input boolean directly?
Please advise...
credit = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter Yes or No for Credit Satisfactory : ");
System.out.println("The answer for Credit Satisfactory : "+credit);
e_invtry=JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter Yes or No for inventry level");
System.out.println("The answer for Quantity Order : "+e_invtry);
Message was edited by:
SummerCool

Thanks...but I don't get it....I tried to use your
suggestion but i got the message that " cannot find
symbol method
showConfirmDialog(java.lang.String,int)" ???
Please advise.
The code I use was :
int credit = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog("Enter Yes
or No for credit satisfactory",
JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION);Well that was not the example I gave you.
JOptionPane has no method showConfirmDialog that receives a String and an int (exactly what the error message is telling you).
What was wrong with the version I showed you?

How do you pass a string into xml

How do we pass a string to be parsed as xml
something like
DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
oc = docBuilder.parse (String s);
Thanks
Arnold

String xmlString = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\n<myelement myattribute=\"myvalue\"/>\n";
InputSource inputSource = new InputSource(new StringReader(xmlString));
Document document = builder.parse(inputSource);

How do you convert this String into a double?

Hi, in this code I want to convert String arg into a double. I'm trying to do this so that I can convert some string into a double in this calculator that I'm making. Here is the code:
public class par {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String str = "351";
double arg = new double(str); // should convert the string into a double
System.out.println(arg);
System.out.println(str);
I keep getting errors in line 4, if any of you could help me out here I'll be thankful, i'm kinda new to java and my search for java's equivalent of alof() (its a function in C libraries that converts char[] into a double)lead me to this.
Tony L.

Use the Following:
String num = "123.2";
double d = Double.parseDouble(num);

ALV grid - how to break a long string into several lines?

I have a ALV grid, where one of the fields contains a textstring that is typically 100 characters long.
Is it possible to break this long string into shorter strings on multiple rows?
Kind of like in Excel, when using row break...

Thats not possible in ALV

How can I convert a string into an image

I want to convert a string into an image.
I want to know required steps for that.

look at http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=31&thread=194763
drawString looks as something you might need

How to seperate a delimited string into a seperate column

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for