Has anyone created a user function to return the ordinal position based
on numeric input?

In other words, f(1) returns 'st', f(2) returns 'nd', f(3) returns
'rd', etc.

Terry Coccoli <request (AT) ifneeded (DOT) com> wrote

Check out the format mask of the to_char function in the sql reference manual.
Other than that (if the format mask is lacking), visit http://asktom.oracle.com
You'll probably find code there.

Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA

Terry Coccoli <request (AT) ifneeded (DOT) com> wrote

This should work over all integers...

CREATE OR REPLACE
FUNCTION F(N IN NUMBER) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
X_RESULT VARCHAR2(2);
BEGIN
IF ABS(N) BETWEEN 10 AND 20 THEN
RETURN 'th';
END IF;
SELECT DECODE(MOD(ABS(N),10),1,'st', 2, 'nd', 3, 'rd', 'th')
INTO X_RESULT FROM DUAL;
RETURN X_RESULT;

END;

Terry Coccoli <request (AT) ifneeded (DOT) com> wrote

Terry, Ordinal position of what? A varchar2 array? The ASCII value?

-- Mark D Powell --

Mark.Powell (AT) eds (DOT) com (Mark D Powell) wrote in message news:<2687bb95.0407210726.2e13c8ec (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...
No sooner than I hit post did I realsize that you wanted first,
second, third as in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc..., but I use google to access
the newsgroup so I had to wait for the index to be updated to show my
post to add on and by afternoon I had work to do.

You can build a function using the following:

select to_char(trunc(sysdate,'MM') + rownum - 1,'fm DDTH'), rownum
from dba_objects
where rownum < 32
order by 2

Which will produce something like
TO_CH ROWNUM
----- ----------
1ST 1
2ND 2
3RD 3
4TH 4
5TH 5
6TH 6
7TH 7
8TH 8
9TH 9
10TH 10
11TH 11
12TH 12
13TH 13
14TH 14
....

HTH -- Mark D Powell --