Multiple values per line

Question

I have a table of the format:=
person_id number,
phone_type varchar2,
phone_number varchar2.
Eg:=
person_id,phone_type,phone_number
1 home 123456
1 work 456789
1 mobile [phone]
2 home 456789090
3 home 4567890
3 fax 345678
3 mobile [phone]
I want to return the data in the format:=
1 home 12345 work 45678 mobile [phone]
2 home 456789090
3 home 4567890 fax 345678 mobile [phone]
Any suggestions? What if the number of phone_types is not fixed?

Answer 1

Since procedural approach has been given already, here is an alternative with SQL statement. SQL> Select * From phones;
PERSON_ID PHONE_TYPE PHONE_NUMB
         1 home       123456
         1 work       456789
         1 mobile     [phone]
         2 home       456789090
         3 home       4567890
         3 fax        345678
         3 mobile     [phone]
7 rows selected.
SQL> Select person_id, max(decode(rn, 1, phone_type, null)) phone_type1,
  2               max(decode(rn, 1, phone_number, null)) phone_num1,
  3                    max(decode(rn, 2, phone_type, null)) phone_type2,
  4               max(decode(rn, 2, phone_number, null)) phone_num2,
  5                    max(decode(rn, 3, phone_type, null)) phone_type3,
  6               max(decode(rn, 3, phone_number, null)) phone_num3
  7  From
  8  (Select person_id, phone_type, phone_number,
  9   row_number() over (partition by person_id order by person_id) rn
10   From phones)
11  Group By person_id
12  /
PERSON_ID PHONE_TYPE PHONE_NUM1 PHONE_TYPE PHONE_NUM2 PHONE_TYPE PHONE_NUM3
         1 home       123456     work       456789     mobile     [phone]
         2 home       456789090
         3 home       4567890    fax        345678     mobile     [phone]Caveat1: This approach must know the maximun number of PHONE_TYPES upfront.
Above coding works for 3 phone types. If there are more, add more max(decode())
clauses to the SQL.
Caveat2: SQL uses analytical function, you should have Oracle 8i or above to run this SQL.
Thx,
Sri