How to split comma separated string inside stored procedure?

Use POSITION http://www.firebirdsql.org/refdocs/langrefupd21-intfunc-position.html

and

SUSTRING http://www.firebirdsql.org/refdocs/langrefupd21-intfunc-substring.html

functions in WHILE DO statement


I am posting modified Michael's version, maybe it will be useful for someone.

The changes are:

  1. SPLIT_STRING is a selectable procedure.
  2. Custom delimiter is possible.
  3. It parses also cases when delimiter is a first character in the P_STRING.
set term ^ ;
create procedure split_string (
    p_string varchar(32000),
    p_splitter char(1) ) 
returns (
    part varchar(32000)
) 
as
  declare variable lastpos integer;
  declare variable nextpos integer;
begin
    p_string = :p_string || :p_splitter;
    lastpos = 1;
    nextpos = position(:p_splitter, :p_string, lastpos);
    if (lastpos = nextpos) then
        begin
            part = substring(:p_string from :lastpos for :nextpos - :lastpos);
            suspend;
            lastpos = :nextpos + 1;
            nextpos = position(:p_splitter, :p_string, lastpos);
        end
    while (:nextpos > 1) do
        begin
            part = substring(:p_string from :lastpos for :nextpos - :lastpos);
            lastpos = :nextpos + 1;
            nextpos = position(:p_splitter, :p_string, lastpos);
            suspend;
        end
end^
set term ; ^

Here a sample how to split the string and write the sub-strings into a table:

create procedure SPLIT_STRING (
  AINPUT varchar(8192))
as
declare variable LASTPOS integer;
declare variable NEXTPOS integer;
declare variable TEMPSTR varchar(8192);
begin
  AINPUT = :AINPUT || ',';
  LASTPOS = 1;
  NEXTPOS = position(',', :AINPUT, LASTPOS);
  while (:NEXTPOS > 1) do
  begin
    TEMPSTR = substring(:AINPUT from :LASTPOS for :NEXTPOS - :LASTPOS);
    insert into new_table("VALUE") values(:TEMPSTR);
    LASTPOS = :NEXTPOS + 1;
    NEXTPOS = position(',', :AINPUT, LASTPOS);
  end
  suspend;
end