title: Vertica SQL Function used to split string into separate columns
body: <p>Is there a way in SQL to split a string into n columns based on a delimiter in a the string.  I'm aware of the SPLIT_PART function where there are three arguments, the string, the delimiter, and the nth delimiter in the string.  Example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>select 
    split_part('2016-01-01 00:11:00|Sprout|0', '|', 1),  split_part('2016-01-01 00:11:00|Sprout|0', '|', 2), split_part('2016-01-01 00:11:00|Sprout|0', '|', 3);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a way to do this without the third argument where you would just supply the string and the delimiter and you would end up with however many columns the delimiter appears in your string?</p>
  
  <p>Once Vertica allows Python based UDFs, I know this is an easy fix using the .split() method, but is there a solution currently?  I know this is likely a long shot, but I'm mostly asking out of curiosity as using split_part works perfectly for my purposes.</p>
  
  <p>This not being possible would be an acceptable answer</p>