How to create a table in Oracle 11g with the list of language codes based on util_i18n?

Question

The other day I asked how to generate a list of currencies based on a built-in oracle table if possible: Does oracle provide a built-in currency table for me to use as constraints?.

Now I need a list of the language codes, so I went to read the documentation for util_i18n and I found a function named GET_LOCAL_LANGUAGES. I tried to adapt the script from the previous answer to this new problem but failed. This is mainly because my oracle/sql knowlegde is terrible:

The original I'm trying to adapt from:

select utl_i18n.GET_DEFAULT_ISO_CURRENCY(value) iso_cur
from v$nls_valid_values
where parameter = 'TERRITORY'

My attempt to use it for the languages:

select utl_i18n.GET_LOCAL_LANGUAGES(value) lang_cur
from v$nls_valid_values
where parameter = 'TERRITORY'

I checked the docs and TERRITORY is the parameter name as well, that part was not a guess. With this query I get error: invalid data type

I bet this is a noob question, but all my tries have failed so far.

Answer 1

You can use pipelined wrapper for example (original function returns package-defined collection type):

SQL> create type t_lang_tab is table of varchar2(4000)
  2  /

SQL> create or replace function get_language(
  2   p_value in varchar2
  3  ) return t_lang_tab
  4  pipelined
  5  is
  6    res utl_i18n.string_array;
  7  begin
  8    res := utl_i18n.GET_LOCAL_LANGUAGES(p_value);
  9    if res is not null then
 10      for i in 1..res.count loop
 11        pipe row (substr(res(i),1,4000));
 12      end loop;
 13    end if;
 14    return;
 15  end;
 16  /

SQL> col column_value format a25
SQL> col value format a25
SQL> select t.column_value, p.value
  2  from v$nls_valid_values p,
  3  table(get_language(p.value)) t
  4  where parameter = 'TERRITORY'
  5  /

COLUMN_VALUE              VALUE                                                 
------------------------- -------------------------                             
ENGLISH                   AMERICA                                               
GERMAN DIN                GERMANY                                               
CANADIAN FRENCH           CANADA                                                
FRENCH                    CANADA                                                
CATALAN                   SPAIN                                                 
SWEDISH                   FINLAND                                               
PORTUGUESE                BRAZIL                                                
LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH    MEXICO                                                
SPANISH                   MEXICO                                                
SPANISH                   CATALONIA                                             
ARABIC                    EGYPT   
....

If you want to create language table you can do this:

SQL> CREATE TABLE languages (
  2    country VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
  3    language VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
  4    CONSTRAINT languages_pk PRIMARY KEY (country, language)
  5  )
  6  /

Primary key should be composite because there are multi-lingual countries like Canada. Now you can use above function to fill table:

SQL> INSERT INTO languages
  2  select p.value, t.column_value
  3  from v$nls_valid_values p,
  4  table(get_language(p.value)) t
  5  where parameter = 'TERRITORY'
  6  order by 1
  7  /

SQL> commit;

SQL> select * from languages;

COUNTRY                        LANGUAGE                                         
------------------------------ ------------------------------                   
AMERICA                        ENGLISH                                          
ARGENTINA                      SPANISH                                          
BELARUS                        RUSSIAN                                          
BELGIUM                        FRENCH                                           
BRAZIL                         PORTUGUESE                                       
CANADA                         FRENCH                                           
CANADA                         CANADIAN FRENCH                                  
CATALONIA                      SPANISH                                          
CHILE                          SPANISH                                          
COLOMBIA                       SPANISH    
...