Regular Expression Functions

Regular expression functions use RE2 as the regex engine. RE2 is fast, but supports only a subset of PCRE syntax and in particular does not support backtracking and associated features (e.g. back references). Java and RE2 regex output can diverage and users should be cautious that the patterns they are using perform similarly between RE2 and Java. For example, character class unions, intersections, and differences ([a[b]], [a&&[b]], [a&&[^b]]) are intepreted as a single character class that contain [, &, and ^ rather than union, intersection, or difference of the character classes.

See https://github.com/google/re2/wiki/Syntax for more information.

regexp_extract(string, pattern) → varchar

Returns the first substring matched by the regular expression pattern in string.

regexp_extract does not support column references for the pattern argument. Patterns must be constant values.

SELECT regexp_extract('1a 2b 14m', '\d+'); -- 1
regexp_extract(string, pattern, group) → varchar

Finds the first occurrence of the regular expression pattern in string and returns the capturing group number group.

regexp_extract does not support column references for the pattern argument. Patterns must be constant values.

SELECT regexp_extract('1a 2b 14m', '(\d+)([a-z]+)', 2); -- 'a'
rlike(string, pattern) → boolean

Evaluates the regular expression pattern and determines if it is contained within string.

This function is similar to the LIKE operator, except that the pattern only needs to be contained within string, rather than needing to match all of string. In other words, this performs a contains operation rather than a match operation. You can match the entire string by anchoring the pattern using ^ and $.

rlike does not support column references for the pattern argument. Patterns must be constant values.

SELECT rlike('1a 2b 14m', '\d+b'); -- true
regexp_replace(string, pattern, overwrite) → varchar

Replaces all substrings in string that match the regular expression pattern with the string overwrite. If no match is found, the original string is returned as is. There is a limit to the number of unique regexes to be compiled per function call, which is 20. If this limit is exceeded the function will throw an exception.

Parameters:

  • string: The string to be searched.

  • pattern: The regular expression pattern that is searched for in the string.

  • overwrite: The string that replaces the substrings in string that match the pattern.

Examples:

SELECT regexp_replace('Hello, World!', 'l', 'L'); -- 'HeLLo, WorLd!'
SELECT regexp_replace('300-300', '(\\d+)-(\\d+)', '400'); -- '400'
SELECT regexp_replace('300-300', '(\\d+)', '400'); -- '400-400'
regexp_replace(string, pattern, overwrite, position) → varchar

Replaces all substrings in string that match the regular expression pattern with the string overwrite starting from the specified position. If no match is found, the original string is returned as is. If the position is less than one, the function throws an exception. If position is greater than the length of string, the function returns the original string without any modifications. There is a limit to the number of unique regexes to be compiled per function call, which is 20. If this limit is exceeded the function will throw an exception.

This function is 1-indexed, meaning the position of the first character is 1. Parameters:

  • string: The string to be searched.

  • pattern: The regular expression pattern that is searched for in the string.

  • overwrite: The string that replaces the substrings in string that match the pattern.

  • position: The position to start from in terms of number of characters. 1 means to start from the beginning of the string. 3 means to start from the 3rd character. Positions less than one, the function will throw an error. If position is greater than the length of string, the function returns the original string without any modifications.

Examples:

SELECT regexp_replace('Hello, World!', 'l', 'L', 6); -- 'Hello, WorLd!'

SELECT regexp_replace('Hello, World!', 'l', 'L', 5); -- 'Hello, World!'

SELECT regexp_replace('Hello, World!', 'l', 'L', 100); -- 'Hello, World!'