Frederic Logier wrote: > hi, > > i'm looking for a split function, like perl or php. > I need doing a pl/pgsql function with a split return an array. > I must do some loop with this array for mass inserting. > > I think of doing it with pl / perl but I need to do insert and I don't > find example with pl / perl and sql.
There is no split function built in to PostgreSQL currently. You could write it yourself in PL/Perl and use it in the PL/pgSQL function. In 7.3 (currently in beta) there is a split_part() function which returns just one element. I will most likely write a split function for 7.4 to return an array, similar to perl and php. In 7.3, the following will do what you want (I think): CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION split(text, text) RETURNS text[] AS ' DECLARE i int := 0; word text; result text := ''{''; result_arr text[]; BEGIN LOOP i := i + 1; SELECT INTO word split_part($1, $2, i); IF word = '''' THEN EXIT; END IF; IF i > 1 THEN result := result || '',"'' || word || ''"''; ELSE result := result || ''"'' || word || ''"''; END IF; END LOOP; result := result || ''}''; result_arr := result; RETURN result_arr; END ' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql'; test=# select split('a,b,c',','); split --------- {a,b,c} (1 row) test=# select a[1] from (select split('a,b,c',',') as a) as t; a --- a (1 row) HTH, Joe ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly