Equivalent to PostgreSQL array() / array_to_string() functions in Oracle 9i

Question

I\'m hoping to return a single row with a comma separated list of values from a query that returns multiple rows in Oracle, essentially flattening the returned rows into a s

Answer 1

Tim Hall has the definitive collection of string aggregation techniques in Oracle.

If you're stuck on 9i, my personal preference would be to define a custom aggregate (there is an implementation of string_agg on that page) such that you would have

SELECT string_agg( name )
  FROM people

But you have to define a new STRING_AGG function. If you need to avoid creating new objects, there are other approaches but in 9i they're going to be messier than the PostgreSQL syntax.