title: SQL (Oracle) Select without an actual table containing static data
body: <p>I am looking for a possibility to run an (Oracle) SQL without querying an actual table. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1881853/oracle-select-without-from/9462071#9462071">Here I found a tip with the DUAL table</a>. Thats pretty good. But I'm looking for a short solution to select MULTIPLE rows from "nowhere". Is that possible? Here is the shortest query I can think of, which does what I need:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Select 1, 'foo' FROM DUAL union 
  Select 2, 'bar' FROM DUAL union  
  Select 3, 'more stuff' FROM DUAL
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But if I want to have more rows in my result, it gets pretty unhandy. Is there a shorter way? Something like </p>
  
  <pre><code>Select 1, 'foo'; 2, 'bar'; 3, 'more stuff' from dual 
  or 
  Select * from (1, 'foo') union (2, 'bar') union (3, 'more stuff') 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know, that doesn't work, but do you have an idea? Is there an easy way to transpose a queries' result? Something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Select transposed (1, 'foo', 2, 'bar', 3, 'more stuff') from dual 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to keep the amount "overhead-characters" at the lowest.</p>