Using REGEXP_LIKE to query with exclusion

Question

Dear all,
how to query a column that doesn't contain value with a particular letter in the middle of it using REGEXP_LIKE? Suppose I have the following:
SQL> select * from test;
TEMP
john
joni
jane
johny
jonny
SQL> select temp from test where regexp_like(temp,'[^h]');
TEMP
john
joni
jane
johny
jonny
SQL> select temp from test where regexp_like(temp,'[a-z]+[^h][a-z]+');
TEMP
john
joni
jane
johny
jonnyThe above code tries to query temp that doesn't contain letter 'h' in the middle (so it querries joni, jane, and jonny) but it cannot be done with
regexp_like(temp,'[^h]');
regexp_like(temp,'[a-z]+[^h][a-z]+');since these 2 patterns satisfy all the available rows. What is the solution?
Best regards,
Val

Answer 1

Frank Kulash wrote:
Hi,
Valerie Debonair wrote:
Hi Frank,
could you give another example, this time involves not equal character ^ instead of using NOT?Why? What's wrong with NOT?
There are other (more complicated and/or less efficient) ways to get the same results, but whatever objection you have to NOT might apply to those ways, too. Rather than have people suggest solutions one at a time, and wait for you to say "I can't use that", I suggest you explain why you can't use it, so that the next solution won;t have the same problem.
^ doesn't mean "not"; it means "something other than" or "anything except". This problem doesn't involve whther or not the string contains something other than 'h'; it only matters whether or not the string conatins 'h'.Hi Frank,
the purpose of this question is for me to understand the usage of ^ character with REGEXP_LIKE. While your solution solves the particular case that I asked, it didn't fully serve the purpose of the question even though it works well in the real world. In order words, I was focusing on the semantic of regular expression.
Thanks for the help though, your explanation on ^ character sheds me some light.......