They say examples are the best way to learn: Example 1: select * from table (sys.ODCIVarchar2List(‘AAA’,’BBB’,’CCC’)); COLUMN_VALUE ———— AAA BBB CCC Example 2: select column_value from table(sys.dbms_debug_vc2coll(‘Gold’, ‘Silver’, ‘Diamond’, ‘Platinum’)) COLUMN_VALUE ———— Gold Silver Diamond Platinum Simply put, Oracle has pre-defined types that allow you to dynamically convert a comma-separated list of values into rows. Read more about Oracle SQL Tip: Using dbms_debug_vc2coll and sys.ODCIVarchar2List[…]