Strip values from column, assign to new column

Question

I am on 11G, need help with SQL.
I would like to employ RegEx, I know 11G supports up to 5 functions, I am thinking maybe REGEX_LIKE, not sure, let me explain.
I have a VARCHAR2 column in my Table that can have various combinations of values:
Example #1:
value (with or without spaces, I call this value0, without a delimiter), example:
Submit
Email Updates
WhiteSpace
Many More Examples
strip value0 where no delimiter is used into its own column
Example #2: (values seperated by a delimiter <), example:
Gucci < Watches < Accessories
blabla < blabla < blabla
bla < bla#$ < blabla
so, I call these:
value1 < value2 < value3
strip value1 before the 1st < into its own column
strip value2 before the 2nd < into its own column
strip value 3 after the 2nd < into its own column
The nice thing is that when the delimiter is used, it is consistent, there is 2 of them: value1 < value2 < value3
Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi,
Whenever you have a problem, please post a little sample data (CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements, relevant columns only) from all tables.
Also post the results you want from that data, and an explanation of how you get those results from that data, with specific examples.
If you're asking about a DML statement, such as UPDATE, the CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements should re-create the tables as they are before the DML, and the results will be the contents of the changed table(s) when everything is finished.
It sounds like you want something like:
UPDATE     table_x
SET     value0     = CASE
                WHEN  INSTR (value, '~')     = 0
                THEN  value
            END
,     value1     = CASE
                WHEN  INSTR (value, '~')     > 0
                THEN  TRIM ( REGEXP_SUBSTR ( value
                                           , '[^~]+'
                               , 1
                               , 1
            END
,     value2  = TRIM ( REGEXP_SUBSTR ( value
                                   , '[^~]+'
                           , 1
                           , 2
,     value3  = TRIM ( REGEXP_SUBSTR ( value
                                   , '[^~]+'
                           , 1
                           , 3
;You could use REGEXP_LIKE instead of INSTR, but it's not really simpler to code, and it will be less efficient.
Edited by: Frank Kulash on Sep 20, 2011 5:15 PM
This site is interpreting the &lt; signs as markup, so I changed the delimiter to '~', just to make it post clearly. You should use &lt; where I used ~ above.