Querying multiple rows from dual

By Granville Bonyata

Sometimes it’s useful to have a query that always returns a certain number of rows, such as a report that returns one row for every day of the month. Using DUAL and CONNECT BY allows you to return as many rows as needed. For instance, this query returns one row for every day of the month:

SELECT TO_DATE(level||’-‘||TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,’MON-YYYY’)) each_day from dual connect by level <= TO_CHAR(LAST_DAY(SYSDATE),’DD’) ORDER BY 1;

SQL> /

EACH_DAY                                                                        ———                                                                       01-JAN-12                                                                       02-JAN-12                                                                       03-JAN-12                                                                       04-JAN-12                                                                       05-JAN-12                                                                       06-JAN-12                                                                       07-JAN-12                                                                       08-JAN-12                                                                       09-JAN-12                                                                       10-JAN-12                                                                       11-JAN-12                                                                       12-JAN-12                                                                       13-JAN-12                                                                       14-JAN-12                                                                       15-JAN-12                                                                       16-JAN-12                                                                       17-JAN-12                                                                       18-JAN-12                                                                       19-JAN-12                                                                       20-JAN-12                                                                       21-JAN-12                                                                       22-JAN-12                                                                       23-JAN-12                                                                       24-JAN-12                                                                       25-JAN-12                                                                       26-JAN-12                                                                       27-JAN-12                                                                       28-JAN-12                                                                       29-JAN-12                                                                       30-JAN-12                                                                       31-JAN-12

31 rows selected.