Oracle

This is asked over and over in the forums, but why not proposing an 11g solution here

create table t(description varchar2(12) primary key,
  numbers varchar2(4000));
insert into t(description, numbers) values ('PRIME','2,3,5,7');
insert into t(description, numbers) values ('ODD','1,3,5,7,9');
commit;

DESCRIPTION
NUMBERS

PRIME
2,3,5,7

ODD
1,3,5,7,9

Now I want to unpivot numbers in rows

select description,(column_value).getnumberval()  
from t,xmltable(numbers)

DESCRIPTION
(COLUMN_VALUE).GETNUMBERVAL()

PRIME
2

PRIME
3

PRIME
5

PRIME
7

ODD
1

ODD
3

ODD
5

ODD
7

ODD
9

It is that simple
Works also with strings :

select (column_value).getstringval()
from xmltable('"a","b","c"');

(COLUMN_VALUE).GETSTRINGVAL()

a

b

c

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