The Ultimate Guide to High Availability with MariaDB
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Regular Expressions Overview

Contents

  1. Special Characters
    1. ^
    2. $
    3. .
    4. *
    5. +
    6. ?
    7. ()
    8. {}
    9. []
      1. ^
      2. Word boundaries
      3. Character Classes
      4. Character Names
    10. Combining
    11. Escaping

Regular Expressions allow MariaDB to perform complex pattern matching on a string. In many cases, the simple pattern matching provided by LIKE is sufficient. LIKE performs two kinds of matches:

  • _ - the underscore, matching a single character
  • % - the percentage sign, matching any number of characters.

In other cases you may need more control over the returned matches, and will need to use regular expressions.

Until MariaDB 10.0.5, MariaDB used the POSIX 1003.2 compliant regular expression library. The current PCRE library is mostly backwards compatible with what is described below - see the PCRE Regular Expressions article for the enhancements made in 10.0.5.

Regular expression matches are performed with the REGEXP function. RLIKE is a synonym for REGEXP.

Comparisons are performed on the byte value, so characters that are treated as equivalent by a collation, but do not have the same byte-value, such as accented characters, could evaluate as unequal.

Without any special characters, a regular expression match is true if the characters match. The match is case-insensitive, except in the case of BINARY strings.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Maria';
+------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Maria' |
+------------------------+
|                      1 |
+------------------------+

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'maria';
+------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'maria' |
+------------------------+
|                      1 |
+------------------------+

SELECT BINARY 'Maria' REGEXP 'maria';
+-------------------------------+
| BINARY 'Maria' REGEXP 'maria' |
+-------------------------------+
|                             0 |
+-------------------------------+

Note that the word being matched must match the whole pattern:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mari';
+-----------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mari' |
+-----------------------+
|                     1 |
+-----------------------+

SELECT 'Mari' REGEXP 'Maria';
+-----------------------+
| 'Mari' REGEXP 'Maria' |
+-----------------------+
|                     0 |
+-----------------------+

The first returns true because the pattern "Mari" exists in the expression "Maria". When the order is reversed, the result is false, as the pattern "Maria" does not exist in the expression "Mari"

A match can be performed against more than one word with the | character. For example:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Monty|Maria';
+------------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Monty|Maria' |
+------------------------------+
|                            1 |
+------------------------------+

Special Characters

The above examples introduce the syntax, but are not very useful on their own. It's the special characters that give regular expressions their power.

^

^ matches the beginning of a string (inside square brackets it can also mean NOT - see below):

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP '^Ma';
+----------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP '^Ma' |
+----------------------+
|                    1 |
+----------------------+

$

$ matches the end of a string:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'ia$';
+----------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'ia$' |
+----------------------+
|                    1 |
+----------------------+

.

. matches any single character:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma.ia';
+------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma.ia' |
+------------------------+
|                      1 |
+------------------------+

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma..ia';
+-------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma..ia' |
+-------------------------+
|                       0 |
+-------------------------+

*

x* matches zero or more of a character x. In the examples below, it's the r character.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar*ia';
+-------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar*ia' |
+-------------------------+
|                       1 |
+-------------------------+

SELECT 'Maia' REGEXP 'Mar*ia';
+------------------------+
| 'Maia' REGEXP 'Mar*ia' |
+------------------------+
|                      1 |
+------------------------+

SELECT 'Marrria' REGEXP 'Mar*ia';
+---------------------------+
| 'Marrria' REGEXP 'Mar*ia' |
+---------------------------+
|                         1 |
+---------------------------+

+

x+ matches one or more of a character x. In the examples below, it's the r character.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar+ia';
+-------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar+ia' |
+-------------------------+
|                       1 |
+-------------------------+

SELECT 'Maia' REGEXP 'Mar+ia';
+------------------------+
| 'Maia' REGEXP 'Mar+ia' |
+------------------------+
|                      0 |
+------------------------+

SELECT 'Marrria' REGEXP 'Mar+ia';
+---------------------------+
| 'Marrria' REGEXP 'Mar+ia' |
+---------------------------+
|                         1 |
+---------------------------+

?

x? matches zero or one of a character x. In the examples below, it's the r character.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar?ia';
+-------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar?ia' |
+-------------------------+
|                       1 |
+-------------------------+

SELECT 'Maia' REGEXP 'Mar?ia';
+------------------------+
| 'Maia' REGEXP 'Mar?ia' |
+------------------------+
|                      1 |
+------------------------+

SELECT 'Marrria' REGEXP 'Mar?ia';
+---------------------------+
| 'Marrria' REGEXP 'Mar?ia' |
+---------------------------+
|                         0 |
+---------------------------+

()

(xyz) - combine a sequence, for example (xyz)+ or (xyz)*

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP '(ari)+';
+-------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP '(ari)+' |
+-------------------------+
|                       1 |
+-------------------------+

{}

x{n} and x{m,n} This notation is used to match many instances of the x. In the case of x{n} the match must be exactly that many times. In the case of x{m,n}, the match can occur from m to n times. For example, to match zero or one instance of the string ari (which is identical to (ari)?), the following can be used:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP '(ari){0,1}';
+-----------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP '(ari){0,1}' |
+-----------------------------+
|                           1 |
+-----------------------------+

[]

[xy] groups characters for matching purposes. For example, to match either the p or the r character:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[pr]ia';
+---------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[pr]ia' |
+---------------------------+
|                         1 |
+---------------------------+

The square brackets also permit a range match, for example, to match any character from a-z, [a-z] is used. Numeric ranges are also permitted.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[a-z]ia';
+----------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[a-z]ia' |
+----------------------------+
|                          1 |
+----------------------------+

The following does not match, as r falls outside of the range a-p.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[a-p]ia';
+----------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[a-p]ia' |
+----------------------------+
|                          0 |
+----------------------------+
^

The ^ character means does NOT match, for example:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[^p]ia';
+---------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[^p]ia' |
+---------------------------+
|                         1 |
+---------------------------+

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[^r]ia';
+---------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[^r]ia' |
+---------------------------+
|                         0 |
+---------------------------+

The [ and ] characters on their own can be literally matched inside a [] block, without escaping, as long as they immediately match the opening bracket:

SELECT '[Maria' REGEXP '[[]';
+-----------------------+
| '[Maria' REGEXP '[[]' |
+-----------------------+
|                     1 |
+-----------------------+

SELECT '[Maria' REGEXP '[]]';
+-----------------------+
| '[Maria' REGEXP '[]]' |
+-----------------------+
|                     0 |
+-----------------------+

SELECT ']Maria' REGEXP '[]]';
+-----------------------+
| ']Maria' REGEXP '[]]' |
+-----------------------+
|                     1 |
+-----------------------+

SELECT ']Maria' REGEXP '[]a]';
+------------------------+
| ']Maria' REGEXP '[]a]' |
+------------------------+
|                      1 |
+------------------------+

Incorrect order, so no match:

SELECT ']Maria' REGEXP '[a]]';
+------------------------+
| ']Maria' REGEXP '[a]]' |
+------------------------+
|                      0 |
+------------------------+

The - character can also be matched in the same way:

SELECT '-Maria' REGEXP '[1-10]';
+--------------------------+
| '-Maria' REGEXP '[1-10]' |
+--------------------------+
|                        0 |
+--------------------------+

SELECT '-Maria' REGEXP '[-1-10]';
+---------------------------+
| '-Maria' REGEXP '[-1-10]' |
+---------------------------+
|                         1 |
+---------------------------+

Word boundaries

The :<: and :>: patterns match the beginning and the end of a word respectively. For example:

SELECT 'How do I upgrade MariaDB?' REGEXP '[[:<:]]MariaDB[[:>:]]';
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| 'How do I upgrade MariaDB?' REGEXP '[[:<:]]MariaDB[[:>:]]' |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                          1 |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

SELECT 'How do I upgrade MariaDB?' REGEXP '[[:<:]]Maria[[:>:]]';
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| 'How do I upgrade MariaDB?' REGEXP '[[:<:]]Maria[[:>:]]' |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                        0 |
+----------------------------------------------------------+

Character Classes

There are a number of shortcuts to match particular preset character classes. These are matched with the [:character_class:] pattern (inside a [] set). The following character classes exist:

Character ClassDescription
alnumAlphanumeric
alphaAlphabetic
blankWhitespace
cntrlControl characters
digitDigits
graphGraphic characters
lowerLowercase alphabetic
printGraphic or space characters
punctPunctuation
spaceSpace, tab, newline, and carriage return
upperUppercase alphabetic
xdigitHexadecimal digit

For example:

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar[[:alnum:]]*';
+--------------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Mar[:alnum:]*' |
+--------------------------------+
|                              1 |
+--------------------------------+

Remember that matches are by default case-insensitive, unless a binary string is used, so the following example, specifically looking for an uppercase, counter-intuitively matches a lowercase character:

SELECT 'Mari' REGEXP 'Mar[[:upper:]]+';
+---------------------------------+
| 'Mari' REGEXP 'Mar[[:upper:]]+' |
+---------------------------------+
|                               1 |
+---------------------------------+

SELECT BINARY 'Mari' REGEXP 'Mar[[:upper:]]+';
+----------------------------------------+
| BINARY 'Mari' REGEXP 'Mar[[:upper:]]+' |
+----------------------------------------+
|                                      0 |
+----------------------------------------+

Character Names

There are also number of shortcuts to match particular preset character names. These are matched with the [.character.] pattern (inside a [] set). The following character classes exist:

NameCharacter
NUL0
SOH001
STX002
ETX003
EOT004
ENQ005
ACK006
BEL007
alert007
BS010
backspace'\b'
HT011
tab'\t'
LF012
newline'\n'
VT013
vertical-tab'\v'
FF014
form-feed'\f'
CR015
carriage-return'\r'
SO016
SI017
DLE020
DC1021
DC2022
DC3023
DC4024
NAK025
SYN026
ETB027
CAN030
EM031
SUB032
ESC033
IS4034
FS034
IS3035
GS035
IS2036
RS036
IS1037
US037
space' '
exclamation-mark'!'
quotation-mark'"'
number-sign'#'
dollar-sign'$'
percent-sign'%'
ampersand'&'
apostrophe'\''
left-parenthesis'('
right-parenthesis')'
asterisk'*'
plus-sign'+'
comma','
hyphen'-'
hyphen-minus'-'
period'.'
full-stop'.'
slash'/'
solidus'/'
zero'0'
one'1'
two'2'
three'3'
four'4'
five'5'
six'6'
seven'7'
eight'8'
nine'9'
colon':'
semicolon';'
less-than-sign'<'
equals-sign'='
greater-than-sign'>'
question-mark'?'
commercial-at'@'
left-square-bracket'['
backslash'
'
reverse-solidus'
'
right-square-bracket']'
circumflex'^'
circumflex-accent'^'
underscore'_'
low-line'_'
grave-accent'`'
left-brace'{'
left-curly-bracket'{'
vertical-line'|'
right-brace'}'
right-curly-bracket'}'
tilde''
DEL177

For example:

SELECT '|' REGEXP '[[.vertical-line.]]';
+----------------------------------+
| '|' REGEXP '[[.vertical-line.]]' |
+----------------------------------+
|                                1 |
+----------------------------------+

Combining

The true power of regular expressions is unleashed when the above is combined, to form more complex examples. Regular expression's reputation for complexity stems from the seeming complexity of multiple combined regular expressions, when in reality, it's simply a matter of understanding the characters and how they apply:

The first example fails to match, as while the Ma matches, either i or r only matches once before the ia characters at the end. 

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[ir]{2}ia';
+------------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[ir]{2}ia' |
+------------------------------+
|                            0 |
+------------------------------+

This example matches, as either i or r match exactly twice after the Ma, in this case one r and one i.

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[ir]{2}';
+----------------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'Ma[ir]{2}' |
+----------------------------+
|                          1 |
+----------------------------+

Escaping

With the large number of special characters, care needs to be taken to properly escape characters. Two backslash characters,
(one for the MariaDB parser, one for the regex library), are required to properly escape a character. For example:

To match the literal (Ma:

SELECT '(Maria)' REGEXP '(Ma';
ERROR 1139 (42000): Got error 'parentheses not balanced' from regexp

SELECT '(Maria)' REGEXP '\(Ma';
ERROR 1139 (42000): Got error 'parentheses not balanced' from regexp

SELECT '(Maria)' REGEXP '\\(Ma';
+--------------------------+
| '(Maria)' REGEXP '\\(Ma' |
+--------------------------+
|                        1 |
+--------------------------+

To match r+: The first two examples are incorrect, as they match r one or more times, not r+:

SELECT 'Mar+ia' REGEXP 'r+';
+----------------------+
| 'Mar+ia' REGEXP 'r+' |
+----------------------+
|                    1 |
+----------------------+

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'r+';
+---------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'r+' |
+---------------------+
|                   1 |
+---------------------+

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'r\\+';
+-----------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'r\\+' |
+-----------------------+
|                     0 |
+-----------------------+

SELECT 'Maria' REGEXP 'r+';
+---------------------+
| 'Maria' REGEXP 'r+' |
+---------------------+
|                   1 |
+---------------------+
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