How to cast LONG to VARCHAR2 inline

You can use XML unless expressions contain something which can brake XML parsing.

select *
  from xmltable(
          '/ROWSET/ROW'
          passing (select dbms_xmlgen.getxmltype('select * from all_ind_expressions
                                                   where index_name = ''XDB$COMPLEX_TYPE_AK''')
                     from dual)
          columns index_owner varchar2(30) path 'INDEX_OWNER',
                  index_name varchar2(30) path 'INDEX_NAME',
                  table_owner varchar2(30) path 'TABLE_OWNER',
                  table_name varchar2(30) path 'TABLE_NAME',
                  column_expression varchar2(4000) path 'COLUMN_EXPRESSION')

INDEX_OWNER     INDEX_NAME           TABLE_OWNER     TABLE_NAME           COLUMN_EXPRESSION                  
--------------- -------------------- --------------- -------------------- -----------------------------------
XDB             XDB$COMPLEX_TYPE_AK  XDB             XDB$COMPLEX_TYPE     SYS_OP_R2O("XMLDATA"."ALL_KID")    
1 row selected.

Using WITH FUNCTION and approach from Converting Long to Varchar2 but still it is somehow ugly and overcomplicated.

CREATE TABLE TEST(Z INT);
CREATE INDEX IF_DOUBLE_TEST_Z ON TEST(Z*2);

Query:

WITH FUNCTION s_convert(pindex_owner VARCHAR2, pindex_name VARCHAR2,
                        ptable_owner VARCHAR2, ptable_name VARCHAR2) 
               RETURN VARCHAR2
AS
  VAR1 LONG;
  VAR2 VARCHAR2(4000);
BEGIN
  SELECT column_expression 
  INTO VAR1 
  FROM all_ind_expressions
  WHERE index_owner = pindex_owner AND index_name = pindex_name
    AND table_owner = ptable_owner AND table_name = ptable_name
    AND column_position = 1;  -- only one column indexes

  VAR2 := SUBSTR(VAR1, 1, 4000);
  RETURN VAR2;
END;
SELECT aie.*, 
  REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(
     q'{ALTER INDEX "<index_owner>"."<index_name>" ON ... (<column_expression>)}'
     ,'<index_owner>', index_owner )
     ,'<index_name>', index_name) 
     ,'<column_expression>', 
       s_convert(index_owner, index_name, table_owner, table_name)) AS result
FROM all_ind_expressions aie
WHERE TABLE_NAME='TEST';

db<>fiddle demo

I believe that there should be more elegant way to achieve it.

As stated by oracle experts themselves, for legacy reasons it's not possible to inline SUBSTR a LONG to a VARCHAR2. AskTom link.

On this other link you'll find ways to do it with a procedure and even with a function if the LONG is shorter that 32k LONG.

And this function can be called later on in a SELECT query, which is what you may want to achieve.