Loop & Instr question

Question

Dear all,
I have a string that will spool to a file from sql*plus, and the string maybe more than 255 characters, e.g.:
v_sql := 'select surname, firstname, sex, birth,
address1, address2,
address3, ..., .... from employee;'
dbms_output.put_line(v_sql);
Now, I want to chop the string in several lines when 'meet' the comma ',' , the output I want become to, e.g.:
dbms_output.put_line('select surname,');
dbms_output.put_line('firstname,');
dbms_output.put_line('sex,');
dbms_output.put_line('... from employee;');
So, I use the loop and instr in a procedure:
procedure xxx (p_sql in varchar2) is
v_len number := length(p_sql);
v_comma number := 0;
v_next_comma number := 0;
v_string varchar2(1000);
begin
for v_cnt in 1..v_len loop
if v_comma = 0 then
v_comma := instr(p_sql, ',');
v_string := substr(p_sql, 1, v_comma-1);
dbms_output.put_line(v_string);
else
v_comma := instr(p_sql, ',');
v_next_comma := instr(substr(p_sql, v_comma+1, v_len-v_comma), ',');
v_string := substr(p_sql, v_comma+1, v_next_comma-1);
dbms_output.put_line(v_string);
end if;
if v_comma > 0 and v_next_comma = 0 then
v_cnt := v_comma +1; <--- v_cnt will not change
elsif v_next_comma > 0 then
v_cnt := v_next_comma +1;
end if;
end loop;
end xxx;
From the above coding, however, I found a problem that v_cnt will not skip to the 'comma' position. And I feel that it is not efficient if the length of the string is very long...
So, is there another way to do? Please help. Thank you!
Remarks: Database 10g.
Regards.

Answer 1

yes, it would see that you aren't running 10r2. here is the code you need
http://www.oraclecommunity.net/group/sqlplus/forum/topic/show?id=1988559%3ATopic%3A9386
the file - vsql.sql - is attached at the end. instead of using a cursor loop (curr_sql in my code) to get a statement, you'll just use your sql statement already in a variable. it's a simple procedure - breaks on certain keywords, or delimiters (like commas) before the linessize (132) is reached, and dbms_outputs the text.
changing the end of script to use a static sql statement:
begin
my_stmt := 'MERGE /*+ dynamic_sampling(ST 4) dynamic_sampling_est_cdn(ST) */ INTO STATS_TARG'||
'ET$ ST USING (SELECT STALENESS, OSIZE, OBJ#, TYPE#, CASE WHEN STALENESS > .5 THE'||
'N 128 ELSE 0 END + AFLAGS AFLAGS, STATUS, SID, SERIAL#, PART#, BO# FROM ( SELECT'||
' /*+ no_expand dynamic_sampling(4) dynamic_sampling_est_cdn */ DECODE(BITAND(T.F'||
'LAGS,16), 16, ROUND( LOG(0.01, NVL( LEAST( 100, GREATEST( 0.01, (DECODE(BITAND(M'||
'.FLAGS, 1), 1, GREATEST(T.ROWCNT, M.INSERTS), LEAST((M.INSERTS + M.DELETES ';
sql_frmt ( my_stmt, save_line, prefix );
         if (save_line is not null) then
            dbms_output.put_line( prefix || save_line );
            save_line := null;
         end if;
end;
MERGE /*+ dynamic_sampling ( ST 4 ) dynamic_sampling_est_cdn ( ST ) */ INTO STATS_TARGET$ ST USING (
SELECT STALENESS, OSIZE, OBJ#, TYPE#, CASE WHEN STALENESS > .5 THEN 128 ELSE 0 END + AFLAGS AFLAGS, STATUS, SID, SERIAL#, PART#,
BO#
FROM (
SELECT /*+ no_expand dynamic_sampling ( 4 ) dynamic_sampling_est_cdn */ DECODE ( BITAND ( T.FLAGS, 16 ), 16, ROUND ( LOG ( 0.01,
NVL ( LEAST ( 100, GREATEST ( 0.01, ( DECODE ( BITAND ( M.FLAGS, 1 ), 1, GREATEST ( T.ROWCNT, M.INSERTS ), LEAST ( ( M.INSERTS
+ M.DELETES