Split Delimiters into Columns

Question

Hi,
I am using database version 11.2.1 and have a function that returns a delimited value.
For example:
Value returned:
'1012, User1, Raleigh Close'
Is it possible to split this delimited value into 3 columns, this split would be required in the same query that returns the function value, for example:
select return_value(ID), regexp_substr(..........)
from test
where ......
Required Output:
'1012, User1, Raleigh Close', 1012, User1, Raleigh Close
Can anyone suggest the best way?
Thanks

Answer 1

You do not need a Regexp for such trivial patterns. They tend to consume more CPU as against the Pure SQL counterparts viz. SUBSTR and INSTR. And pure SQL functions do tend to perform better when you deal with huge amount of data. Hence, my choice would stay with SUBSTR and INSTR for such requirements.
with data as
  select '1012, User1, Raleigh Close' col from dual
select col, substr(col, 1, instr(col, ',') - 1) col1,
       substr(col, instr(col, ',') + 1, instr(col, ',', 1, 2) - instr(col, ',') - 1) col2,
       substr(col, substr(col, instr(col, ',', 1, 2) + 1)) col3
  from data;
COL                        COL1                       COL2                       COL3                      
1012, User1, Raleigh Close 1012                        User1                     Raleigh Close Edited by: Purvesh K on Mar 26, 2013 4:09 PM
Modified INSTR for COL3; Perhaps over-thought on it a bit.