Split comma delimited strings in a table in Oracle

NOTE : This post is about splitting multiple comma delimited column values in a table. If you have to apply it on a single value then look at Split single comma delimited string into rows in Oracle

In my other post I summarized various methods to split a comma delimited string into rows using Oracle SQL. However, those SQLs would only take care of a single row, i.e. when you have a single value of comma delimited string. Usually, at our work place, we deal with tables. So, this post is to demonstrate “How to split comma delimited column values in a table into multiple rows in Oracle”

Some basic setup:

SQL> DROP TABLE t PURGE;

Table dropped.

SQL> CREATE TABLE t (
  2    ID          NUMBER GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
  3    text        VARCHAR2(100)
  4  );

Table created.

SQL> INSERT INTO t (text) VALUES ('word1, word2, word3');

1 row created.

SQL> INSERT INTO t (text) VALUES ('word4, word5, word6');

1 row created.

SQL> INSERT INTO t (text) VALUES ('word7, word8, word9');

1 row created.

SQL> COMMIT;

Commit complete.

SQL> SELECT * FROM t;

        ID TEXT
---------- ----------------------------------------------
         1 word1, word2, word3
         2 word4, word5, word6
         3 word7, word8, word9

Now, let’s see the various methods to split the comma delimited values into rows from the table.

Using REGULAR EXPRESSIONS

INSTR in CONNECT BY clause

SQL> SELECT t.id,
  2         trim(regexp_substr(t.text, '[^,]+', 1, lines.column_value)) text
  3  FROM t,
  4    TABLE (CAST (MULTISET
  5    (SELECT LEVEL FROM dual CONNECT BY instr(t.text, ',', 1, LEVEL - 1) > 0)
  6                 AS sys.odciNumberList
  7                )
  8          ) lines
  9  ORDER BY id
 10  /

        ID TEXT
---------- --------------------------------------------------
         1 word1
         1 word2
         1 word3
         2 word4
         2 word5
         2 word6
         3 word7
         3 word8
         3 word9

9 rows selected.

SQL>

REGEXP_SUBSTR in CONNECT BY clause

SQL> SELECT t.id,
  2         trim(regexp_substr(t.text, '[^,]+', 1, lines.column_value)) text
  3  FROM t,
  4    TABLE (CAST (MULTISET
  5    (SELECT LEVEL FROM dual CONNECT BY regexp_substr(t.text , '[^,]+', 1, LEVEL) IS NOT NULL)
  6                 AS sys.odciNumberList
  7                )
  8          ) lines
  9  ORDER BY id
 10  /

        ID TEXT
---------- --------------------------------------------------
         1 word1
         1 word2
         1 word3
         2 word4
         2 word5
         2 word6
         3 word7
         3 word8
         3 word9

9 rows selected.

SQL>

REGEXP_COUNT in CONNECT BY clause

SQL> SELECT t.id,
  2         trim(regexp_substr(t.text, '[^,]+', 1, lines.column_value)) text
  3  FROM t,
  4    TABLE (CAST (MULTISET
  5    (SELECT LEVEL FROM dual CONNECT BY LEVEL <= regexp_count(t.text, ',')+1)
  6                 AS sys.odciNumberList
  7                )
  8          ) lines
  9  ORDER BY id
 10  /

        ID TEXT
---------- --------------------------------------------------
         1 word1
         1 word2
         1 word3
         2 word4
         2 word5
         2 word6
         3 word7
         3 word8
         3 word9

9 rows selected.

Using XMLTABLE

SQL> SELECT id,
  2         trim(COLUMN_VALUE) text
  3  FROM t,
  4    xmltable(('"'
  5    || REPLACE(text, ',', '","')
  6    || '"'))
  7  /

        ID TEXT
---------- ------------------------
         1 word1
         1 word2
         1 word3
         2 word4
         2 word5
         2 word6
         3 word7
         3 word8
         3 word9

9 rows selected.

SQL>

Using MODEL clause

SQL> WITH
  2  model_param AS
  3     (
  4            SELECT id,
  5                      text AS orig_str ,
  6                   ','
  7                          || text
  8                          || ','                                 AS mod_str ,
  9                   1                                             AS start_pos ,
 10                   Length(text)                                   AS end_pos ,
 11                   (Length(text) - Length(Replace(text, ','))) + 1 AS element_count ,
 12                   0                                             AS element_no ,
 13                   ROWNUM                                        AS rn
 14            FROM   t )
 15     SELECT   id,
 16              trim(Substr(mod_str, start_pos, end_pos-start_pos)) text
 17     FROM     (
 18                     SELECT *
 19                     FROM   model_param MODEL PARTITION BY (id, rn, orig_str, mod_str)
 20                     DIMENSION BY (element_no)
 21                     MEASURES (start_pos, end_pos, element_count)
 22                     RULES ITERATE (2000)
 23                     UNTIL (ITERATION_NUMBER+1 = element_count[0])
 24                     ( start_pos[ITERATION_NUMBER+1] = instr(cv(mod_str), ',', 1, cv(element_no)) + 1,
 25                     end_pos[iteration_number+1] = instr(cv(mod_str), ',', 1, cv(element_no) + 1) )
 26                 )
 27     WHERE    element_no != 0
 28     ORDER BY mod_str ,
 29           element_no
 30  /

        ID TEXT
---------- --------------------------------------------------
         1 word1
         1 word2
         1 word3
         2 word4
         2 word5
         2 word6
         3 word7
         3 word8
         3 word9

9 rows selected.

SQL>

Hope it helps!