Thread: Number of fields in split()

Hello-
I'm running postgres 8.0.8 on Gento Linux and have a text field
delimited with tildes that I am splitting using split_part().  Is there
a way to tell how many "parts" I have?  For example:

1~22~33  would split into 3 fields
1~2~3~4 would split into 4 fields

In Python I would do:

   fields = '1~22~333'.split('~')

and then len(fields) would be 3, so I would know there were 3 fields to
process.

Another way to solve this problem would be to determine the names of
columns in a given table. Is there a way to get that information?

I want this information so I can build insert and update queries on the
fly in my pgplsql functions.

Thanks for your help,
--greg

If you like python, you can use plpython?

As for the column names in a table, look in the docs under system catalogs and information schema.

Sean


-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Lindstrom [mailto:greg.lindstrom@novasyshealth.com]
Sent: Thu 11/2/2006 3:07 PM
To: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
Subject: [NOVICE] Number of fields in split()

Hello-
I'm running postgres 8.0.8 on Gento Linux and have a text field
delimited with tildes that I am splitting using split_part().  Is there
a way to tell how many "parts" I have?  For example:

1~22~33  would split into 3 fields
1~2~3~4 would split into 4 fields

In Python I would do:

   fields = '1~22~333'.split('~')

and then len(fields) would be 3, so I would know there were 3 fields to
process.

Another way to solve this problem would be to determine the names of
columns in a given table. Is there a way to get that information?

I want this information so I can build insert and update queries on the
fly in my pgplsql functions.

Thanks for your help,
--greg

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