16. Learn MySQL Regular Expressions

MySQL Regular Expression

In the previous chapter we have learned that MySQL can perform fuzzy matching through LIKE ...% .

MySQL also supports the matching of other regular expressions. MySQL uses the REGEXP operator for regular expression matching.

If you know PHP or Perl, it's pretty straightforward, as MySQL's regular expression matching is similar to those of these scripts.

The regular patterns in the table below can be applied to the REGEXP operator.

Instance

After understanding the above regular requirements, we can write SQL statements with regular expressions according to our own requirements.Below we will list a few small examples (table name: person_tbl ) to deepen our understanding:

Find all data starting with 'st' in the name field:

mysql> SELECT name FROM person_tbl WHERE name REGEXP '^st';

Find all data in the name field that ends with 'ok':

mysql> SELECT name FROM person_tbl WHERE name REGEXP 'ok$';

Find all data containing the string 'mar' in the name field:

mysql> SELECT name FROM person_tbl WHERE name REGEXP 'mar';

Finds all data in the name field that begins with a vowel character or ends with the string 'ok':

mysql> SELECT name FROM person_tbl WHERE name REGEXP '^[aeiou]|ok$';