Parsing Excel's CSV file in PL/SQL

Question

Someone may need this...
This procedure parses a line of Excel's CSV file into a PL/SQL table's elements.
FUNCTION func_split_csv (p_string IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN gt_tbltyp_strings
IS
* NAME: func_split_csv
* PURPOSE: Split the passed Excel's CSV strings into tokens.
* Returns PL/SQL table of strings.
* REVISIONS:
* Author Date Description
* S.Stadnik 12/12/07 Initial
* PARAMETERS
* INPUT : p_string - String to be tokenized
* OUTPUT : None.
* RETURNS: PL/SQL table of strings.
TYPE gt_tbltyp_strings IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(32000) INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
-- Local constants
c_str_proc_nme CONSTANT VARCHAR2(100) := gc_str_package_nme||'.func_split_csv';
-- Local Variables
v_int_location PLS_INTEGER;
v_tab_tokens gt_tbltyp_strings;
v_str_token VARCHAR2(32000);
v_str_char VARCHAR2(1);
v_int_table_pos PLS_INTEGER := 1;
v_int_idx PLS_INTEGER := 1;
b_bln_open_quote BOOLEAN := FALSE; -- Flag, indicating that double-quote is opened
BEGIN
v_int_location := 0;
-- Is the string is empty, return an empty table
IF p_string IS NULL THEN
RETURN v_tab_tokens;
END IF;
-- If the string does not contain delimiters, return the whole string
IF InStr(p_string, ',', 1) = 0 THEN
v_tab_tokens(v_int_table_pos) := p_string;
RETURN v_tab_tokens;
END IF;
-- Loop thru all the characters
WHILE v_int_idx <= Length (p_string) LOOP
v_str_char := SubStr(p_string, v_int_idx, 1);
CASE v_str_char
-- Double quote encoutered (special case)
WHEN '"' THEN
-- If no double-quote was opened, this is an opening quote
IF b_bln_open_quote = FALSE THEN
b_bln_open_quote := TRUE;
-- '""' translates to '"'
ELSIF SubStr(p_string, v_int_idx + 1, 1) = '"' THEN
v_str_token := v_str_token || '"';
v_int_idx := v_int_idx + 1;
-- If double-quote was opened, this is a closing quote
ELSIF b_bln_open_quote = TRUE THEN
b_bln_open_quote := FALSE;
END IF;
-- Coma encoutered (special case)
WHEN ',' THEN
-- If double-quote was opened, this is part of the string
IF b_bln_open_quote = TRUE THEN
v_str_token := v_str_token || ',';
-- If double-quote was not opened, this is a delimiter, save the string
ELSE
v_tab_tokens(v_int_table_pos) := v_str_token;
v_str_token := '';
v_int_table_pos := v_int_table_pos + 1;
END IF;
-- Any other character is passed into the string
ELSE
v_str_token := v_str_token || v_str_char;
END CASE;
v_int_idx := v_int_idx + 1;
END LOOP;
-- If final token lenght is non-zero after we processed all the characters,
-- OR if the last character of the source string is ','
-- Add the final token into the table
IF Length(v_str_token) != 0
OR SubStr(p_string, -1, 1) = ',' THEN
v_tab_tokens(v_int_table_pos) := v_str_token;
END IF;
RETURN v_tab_tokens;
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
-- Put your favourite error handler in here
END func_split_csv;

Answer 1

Yes, I agree.
That was written for a particular case:
- When the CSV file is an Excel's file,
- When it is impossible to put the file onto the DB server, so we couldn't use external tables, and the whole contents had to be passed as a CLOB parameter.