How to split comma delimited list of strings in oracle plsql, when the individual string itself is having comma in it?

Question

Table T1

C1   |  C2
-----+------
A,B  |  C,D

Code:

DECLARE
    l_varchar VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
    SELECT C1||','||C2 INTO l_varchar FROM T1;
END;

Now I need to split values in l_varchar based on COMMA delimiter.

If I try to split as given in http://sqlfiddle.com/#!4/b42db/7

I get:

A
B
C
D

But I need:

A,B
C,D

Can you please help me to get this desired output.

Can I do something while concatenating the strings, so that later I will be able to split it?

Below query is used to concatenate, can this be tweaked?

SELECT C1||','||C2 INTO l_varchar FROM T1;

Query used to split comma delimited string:

select 
    regexp_substr(C1||','||c2 ,'[^,]+', 1, level) As str 
from 
    (select 'A,B' c1, 'C,D' c2 from dual)
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= regexp_count(C1||','||c2, ',') + 1

Answer 1

Unless I am misunderstanding, what you are trying to do is not possible unless you use a different delimiter. Example :

SELECT C1||';'||C2 INTO l_varchar FROM T1;

Answer 2

here is a very nice and correct way to do it:

SELECT *
FROM   t1
UNPIVOT (unpivoted_column FOR original_column 
         IN (c1 AS 'C1', c2 AS 'C2'));

For any further clarifications don't hesitate to ask me.

Ted.

Answer 3

Best possible way is to use the REGEXP combinations. Hope the below snippet helps you to get the desired result.

SELECT regexp_substr(a.c, '[^*]+', 1, level) TXT
FROM
  (SELECT COL1
    ||'*'
    ||COL2
    ||'*'
    ||COL3 C
  FROM
    (SELECT 'A,B' COL1,'C,D' COL2,'E,F' COL3 FROM DUAL
    )
  )A
  CONNECT BY LEVEL <= LENGTH(A.C)-LENGTH(REPLACE(A.C,'*',''))+1;