LTRIM and RTRIM syntax to identify string between commas

Question

My [Locations] field is a character field that contains <addresses> separated by commas
ie: (1 University Avenue, 3 Maple Street, 575 Commonwealth Avenue,,,,,,,)
I want to select the <address> between the 2nd and the 3rd comma ......575 Commonwealth Avenue
Can someone please help me with the syntax for writing this select statement.
I've tried some due diligence, but am having problems.
In another scenario, I'm also going to need to update the address by specifying its location in the textstring.
Thanks in advance for your help.
-Gary

Answer 1

Let me explain ->
Since, you didn't provide any table structure - so i need to prepare one virtual table.
-----My Dummy Table With Data Part ------
satyaki>with pp
  2  as
  3    (
  4      select '1 University Avenue, 3 Maple Street, 575 Commonwealth Avenue,,,,,,,' cola from dual
  5    )
------End Of My Dummy Table With Data Part--------
  6  select trim(substr(cola,instr(cola,',',1,2)+1,instr(cola,',',1,3) - instr(cola,',',1,2)-1)) res
  7  from pp;In your case,
You can only use the select statement. cola - will be your data column name.
Now, talking about INSTR function ->
instr(cola,',',1,2)As you can see the digit in bold part, it will find the ',' with 2nd occurrence inside your string.
Similarly, instr(cola,',',1,3) - this will find the third occurrence of ',' inside you string.
Now,
You have to see the substr function.
In substr, you have to pass the column name on which you want to extract the required data, then you have to pass the starting position of the character from where you want extract the data, then you have to pass the number of character you want to cut from the start position.
So, i've used ->
substr(cola,instr(cola,',',1,2)+1,instr(cola,',',1,3) - instr(cola,',',1,2)-1)cola -> Source String
instr(cola,',',1,2) -> Start position of the String
instr(cola,',',1,3) - instr(cola,',',1,2)-1 -> Total number character you want extract from your string.
Regards.
Satyaki De.