Word Count Function

Word Count Function :
create or replace
FUNCTION wordcount (str IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN PLS_INTEGER
AS
words PLS_INTEGER := 0;
len PLS_INTEGER := NVL(LENGTH(str),0);
inside_a_word BOOLEAN;
BEGIN
FOR i IN 1..len + 1
LOOP
IF ASCII(SUBSTR(str, i, 1)) < 33 OR i > len
THEN
IF inside_a_word
THEN
words := words + 1;
inside_a_word := FALSE;
END IF;
ELSE
inside_a_word := TRUE;
END IF;
END LOOP;
RETURN words;
END;