sql - Split string by space and character as delimiter in Oracle with regexp_substr

Question

I'm trying to split a string with regexp_subtr, but i can't make it work.

So, first, i have this query

select regexp_substr('Helloworld - test!' ,'[[:space:]]-[[:space:]]') from dual

which very nicely extracts my delimiter - blank-blank

But then, when i try to split the string with this option, it just doesn't work.

select regexp_substr('Helloworld - test!' ,'[^[[:space:]]-[[:space:]]]+')from dual

The query returns nothing.

Help will be much appreciated! Thanks

Answer 1

SQL Fiddle

Oracle 11g R2 Schema Setup:

CREATE TABLE TEST( str ) AS
          SELECT 'Hello world - test-test! - test' FROM DUAL
UNION ALL SELECT 'Hello world2 - test2 - test-test2' FROM DUAL;

Query 1:

SELECT Str,
       COLUMN_VALUE AS Occurrence,
       REGEXP_SUBSTR( str ,'(.*?)([[:space:]]-[[:space:]]|$)', 1, COLUMN_VALUE, NULL, 1 ) AS split_value
FROM   TEST,
       TABLE(
         CAST(
           MULTISET(
             SELECT LEVEL
             FROM   DUAL
             CONNECT BY LEVEL < REGEXP_COUNT( str ,'(.*?)([[:space:]]-[[:space:]]|$)' )
           )
           AS SYS.ODCINUMBERLIST
         )
       )

Results:

|                               STR | OCCURRENCE |  SPLIT_VALUE |
|-----------------------------------|------------|--------------|
|   Hello world - test-test! - test |          1 |  Hello world |
|   Hello world - test-test! - test |          2 |   test-test! |
|   Hello world - test-test! - test |          3 |         test |
| Hello world2 - test2 - test-test2 |          1 | Hello world2 |
| Hello world2 - test2 - test-test2 |          2 |        test2 |
| Hello world2 - test2 - test-test2 |          3 |   test-test2 |