| General Information |
Anchoring Characters |
| Character Class |
Description |
| ^ |
Anchor the expression to the start of a line |
| $ |
Anchor the expression to the end of a line |
|
Equivalence Classes |
| Character Class |
Description |
| = = |
Oracle supports the equivalence classes through the POSIX '[==]' Syntax. A base letter and all of its accented versions constitute an equivalence class. For example,the equivalence class '[=a=]' matches ä and â. The equivalence classes are valid only inside the bracketed expression |
|
Match Options |
| Character Class |
Description |
| c |
Case sensitive matching |
| i |
Case insensitive matching |
| m |
Treat source string as multi-line activating Anchor chars |
| n |
Allow the period (.) to match any newline character |
|
Posix Characters |
| Character Class |
Description |
| [:alnum:] |
Alphanumeric characters |
| [:alpha:] |
Alphabetic characters |
| [:blank:] |
Blank Space Characters |
| [:cntrl:] |
Control characters (nonprinting) |
| [:digit:] |
Numeric digits |
| [:graph:] |
Any [:punct:],[:upper:],[:lower:],and [:digit:] chars |
| [:lower:] |
Lowercase alphabetic characters |
| [:print:] |
Printable characters |
| [:punct:] |
Punctuation characters |
| [:space:] |
Space characters (nonprinting),such as carriage return,newline,vertical tab,and form Feed |
| [:upper:] |
Uppercase alphabetic characters |
| [:xdigit:] |
Hexidecimal characters |
|
Quantifier Characters |
| Character Class |
Description |
| * |
Match 0 or more times |
| ? |
Match 0 or 1 time |
| + |
Match 1 or more times |
| {m} |
Match exactly m times |
| {m,} |
Match at least m times |
| {m,n} |
Match at least m times but no more than n times |
| \n |
Cause the prevIoUs expression to be repeated n times |
|
Alternative Matching And Grouping Characters |
| Character Class |
Description |
| | |
Separates alternates,often used with grouping operator () |
| ( ) |
Groups subexpression into a unit for alternations,for quantifiers,or for backreferencing (see "Backreferences" section) |
| [char] |
Indicates a character list; most Metacharacters inside a character list are understood as literals,with the exception of character classes,and the ^ and - Metacharacters |
|
Demo Table |
CREATETABLEtest (
testcolVARCHAR2(50));
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('abcde');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12345');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('1a4A5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12a45');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12aBC');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12abc');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12ab5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12aa5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12AB5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('ABCDE');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('123-5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('12.45');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('1a4b5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('1 3 5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('1 45');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('1 5');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('a b c d');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('a b c d e');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('a e');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('Steven');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('Stephen');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('111.222.3333');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('222.333.4444');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('333.444.5555');
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('abcdefabcdefabcxyz');
COMMIT; |
|
| REGEXP_COUNT |
| Syntax |
REGEXP_COUNT(<source_string>,<pattern>[[,<start_position>],[<match_parameter>]])
-- match parameter:
'c' = case sensitive
'i' = case insensitive search
'm' = treats the source string as multiple lines
'n' = allows the period (.) wild character to match newline
'x' = ignore whitespace characters |
Count's occurrences based on a regular expression |
SELECTREGEXP_COUNT(testcol,'2a',1,'i') RESULT
FROMtest;
SELECTREGEXP_COUNT(testcol,'e','i') RESULT
FROMtest; |
|
| REGEXP_INSTR |
| Syntax |
REGEXP_INSTR(<source_string>,<start_position>][,<occurrence>][,<return_option>][,<match_parameter>][,<sub_expression>]]) |
Find character 'o' followed by any 3 alphabetic characters: case insensitive Our thanks to Cassio for spotting a typo here. |
SELECTREGEXP_INSTR('500Oracle Pkwy,Redwood Shores,CA','[o][[:alpha:]]{3}','i') RESULT
FROMDUAL;
SELECTREGEXP_INSTR('500 OraclePkwy,'i') RESULT
FROMDUAL;
SELECTREGEXP_INSTR('500 Oracle Pkwy,Redwood Shores,2,Redwood Shores,CA','i') RESULT
FROMDUAL; |
| Find the position of try,trying,tried or tries |
SELECTREGEXP_INSTR('We are trying to make the subject easier.','tr(y(ing)?|(ied)|(ies))') RESULTNUM
FROMDUAL; |
| Using Sub-Expression option |
SELECTtestcol,REGEXP_INSTR(testcol,'ab','i',0)
FROMtest;
SELECTtestcol,1)
FROMtest;
SELECTtestcol,'a(b)',1)
FROMtest; |
|
| REGEXP_LIKE |
| Syntax |
REGEXP_LIKE(<source_string>,<pattern>,<match_parameter>) |
AlphaNumeric Characters |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:alnum:]]');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:alnum:]]{3}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:alnum:]]{5}'); |
Alphabetic Characters |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:alpha:]]');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:alpha:]]{3}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:alpha:]]{5}'); |
Control Characters |
INSERTINTOtestVALUES('zyx' ||CHR(13) || 'wvu');
COMMIT;
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:cntrl:]]{1}'); |
Digits |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:digit:]]');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:digit:]]{3}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:digit:]]{5}'); |
Lower Case |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:lower:]]');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:lower:]]{2}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:lower:]]{3}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:lower:]]{5}'); |
Printable Characters |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:print:]]{5}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:print:]]{6}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:print:]]{7}'); |
Punctuation |
TRUNCATETABLEtest;
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:punct:]]'); |
Spaces |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:space:]]');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:space:]]{2}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:space:]]{3}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:space:]]{5}'); |
Upper Case |
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:upper:]]');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:upper:]]{2}');
SELECT*
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'[[:upper:]]{3}'); |
| Values Starting with 'a%b' |
SELECTtestcol
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'^ab*'); |
| 'a' is the third value |
SELECTtestcol
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'^..a.'); |
| Contains two consecutive occurances of the letter 'a' or 'z' |
SELECTtestcol
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'([az])\1','i'); |
| Begins with 'Ste' ends with 'en' and contains either 'v' or 'ph' in the center |
SELECTtestcol
FROMtest
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(testcol,'^Ste(v|ph)en$'); |
| Use a regular expression in a check constraint |
CREATETABLEmytest (c1VARCHAR2(20),
CHECK (REGEXP_LIKE(c1,'^[[:alpha:]]+$'))); |
Identify SSN
Thanks: Byron Bush HIoUG |
CREATETABLEssn_test (
ssn_colVARCHAR2(20));
INSERTINTOssn_testVALUES('111-22-3333');
INSERTINTOssn_testVALUES('111=22-3333');
INSERTINTOssn_testVALUES('111-A2-3333');
INSERTINTOssn_testVALUES('111-22-33339');
INSERTINTOssn_testVALUES('111-2-23333');
INSERTINTOssn_testVALUES('987-65-4321');
COMMIT;
SELECTssn_col
from ssn_test
WHEREREGEXP_LIKE(ssn_col,'^[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}$'); |
|
| REGEXP_REPLACE |
| Syntax |
REGEXP_REPLACE(<source_string>,
<replace_string>,<position>,<occurrence>,<match_parameter>) |
| Looks for the pattern xxx.xxx.xxxx and reformats pattern to (xxx) xxx-xxxx |
col testcol format a15
col result format a15
SELECTtestcol,REGEXP_REPLACE(testcol,
'([[:digit:]]{3})\.([[:digit:]]{3})\.([[:digit:]]{4})',
'(\1) \2-\3') RESULT
FROMtest
WHERELENGTH(testcol) = 12; |
| Put a space after every character |
SELECTtestcol,'(.)','\1 ') RESULT
FROMtest
WHEREtestcol like 'S%'; |
| Replace multiple spaces with a single space |
SELECTREGEXP_REPLACE('500 Oracle Parkway,'( ){2,}',' ') RESULT
FROMDUAL; |
| Insert a space between a lower case character followed by an upper case character |
SELECTREGEXP_REPLACE('George McGovern','([[:lower:]])([[:upper:]])','\1 \2') CITY
FROMDUAL;
(Produces 'George Mc Govern') |
| Replace the period with a string (note use of '\') |
SELECTREGEXP_REPLACE('We are trying to make the subject easier.','\.',' for you.') REGEXT_SAMPLE
FROMDUAL; |
| Demo |
CREATETABLEt(
testcolVARCHAR2(10));
INSERTINTOtVALUES('1');
INSERTINTOtVALUES('2 ');
INSERTINTOtVALUES('3 new ');
col newval format a10
SELECTLENGTH(testcol) len,testcol origval,
REGEXP_REPLACE(testcol,'\W+$',' ') newval,
LENGTH(REGEXP_REPLACE(testcol,' ')) newlen
FROMt; |
Code snippet courtesy of Valentin Matak.
This is a handy way to remove duplicate characters from a string. This example shows the 1+ repeatability qualifier in use. |
SELECTREGEXP_REPLACE('ABBBCABBCCCAABAAAAA','(A|B|C)\1+','\1')
FROMDUAL; |
Code snippet courtesy of Jonathan Linder.
This checks for a valid email address and then extracts the domain name. |
SELECTREGEXP_REPLACE('bugs.bunny@gmail.com','^(\S+)@(\S+)','\2')
FROMDUALd
WHERE
REGEXP_LIKE('bugs.bunny@gmail.com','^[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@([A-Za-z0-9-]+.)?+[A-Za-z]{2,63}$') |
Code snippet courtesy of Juraj Drusc.
This example will convert Oracle's SYS_GUID() to a JAVA UUID. |
SELECTlower(REGEXP_REPLACE(sys_guid(),
'([[:alnum:]]{8})([[:alnum:]]{4})([[:alnum:]]{4})([[:alnum:]]{4})([[:alnum:]]{12})',
'1-2-3-4-5'))FROMDUAL; |
|
| REGEXP_SUBSTR |
| Syntax |
REGEXP_SUBSTR(source_string,pattern
[,position [,occurrence
[,match_parameter]]]) |
| Searches for a comma followed by one or more occurrences of non-comma characters followed by a comma |
SELECTREGEXP_SUBSTR('500 Oracle Parkway,',[^,]+,') RESULT
FROMDUAL; |
| Look for http:// followed by a substring of one or more alphanumeric characters and optionally,a period (.) |
col result format a50
SELECTREGEXP_SUBSTR('Go to http://www.oracle.com/products and click on database',
'http://([[:alnum:]]+\.?){3,4}/?') RESULT
FROMDUAL; |
| Extracts try,tried or tries |
SELECTREGEXP_SUBSTR('We are trying to make the subject easier.','tr(y(ing)?|(ied)|(ies))')
FROMDUAL; |
| Extract the 3rd field treating ':' as a delimiter |
SELECTREGEXP_SUBSTR('system/pwd@orabase:1521:sidval',
'[^:]+',3) RESULT
FROMDUAL; |
Extract from string with vertical bar delimiter |
CREATETABLEregexp (
testcolVARCHAR2(50));
INSERTINTOregexp
(testcol)
VALUES
('One|Two|Three|Four|Five');
SELECT*FROMregexp;
SELECTREGEXP_SUBSTR(testcol,'[^|]+',3)
FROMregexp; |
| Equivalence classes |
SELECTREGEXP_SUBSTR('iSelfSchooling NOT ISelfSchooling','[[=i=]]SelfSchooling') RESULT
FROMDUAL; |
Parsing Demo |
set serveroutput on
DECLARE
xVARCHAR2(2);
yVARCHAR2(2);
cVARCHAR2(40) := '1:3,4:6,8:10,3:4,7:6,11:12';
BEGIN
x := REGEXP_SUBSTR(c,'[^:]+',1);
y := REGEXP_SUBSTR(c,'[^,]+',3,1);
dbms_output.put_line(x ||' '|| y);
END;
/
Gary Whitaker wrote in with an addition to this parsing demo,and had the following comments: The parsing demo above uses the regular expression '[^,]+' whichdoes not workwhen there is a@L_81_301@element in the list. This could result in returning the wrong element's data. Consider this simple example with comments: set serveroutput on DECLARE
xVARCHAR2(1);
yVARCHAR2(1);
zVARCHAR2(1);
cVARCHAR2(40) := '1,4,5,6,7';
BEGIN
-- Works as expected if the value you seek is before any null value in the list:
x := REGEXP_SUBSTR(c,2);
-- This form only returns the 4th element when all elements are present.
-- It will return the 4thnon-nullelement,which in this example is really '5',
-- which could be misleading.
-- if you are really after the 4th element regardless if there is a null element: y := REGEXP_SUBSTR(c,4); -- This form gets the actual 4th element,allowing for the null element. -- Get the 1st substring of the 4th instance of a set of characters that are not a comma,-- when followed by a comma or the end of the line: z := REGEXP_SUBSTR(c,'([^,]*)(,|$)',NULL,1); dbms_output.put_line(x); dbms_output.put_line(y); dbms_output.put_line(z); END; / |
