Howto escape special characters if using regexp_replace & regexp_substr

Question

hello experts,
following test case
insert into querytest1 (d) values
('#1(170):[{"type":"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299},{"type":"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002},{"type":"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925}] #2(0):  #3(5):-3141 #4(5):-3141 #5(5):21804 #6(7):3890750 #7(3):s11');
select regexp_replace(d, REGEXP_SUBSTR (REGEXP_SUBSTR(d, '[^ ]+', 1, 1), '[^:]+', 1, 2 ),'') from querytest1;
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-12726: unmatched bracket in regular expression
proof that []{} special characters are the problem:
delete from querytest1;
commit;
-- insert data without special characters
insert into querytest1 (d) values ('#1(170):"type":"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299,"type":"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002,"type":"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925] #2(0):  #3(5):-3141 #4(5):-3141 #5(5):21804 #6(7):3890750 #7(3):s11');
select regexp_replace(d, REGEXP_SUBSTR (REGEXP_SUBSTR(d, '[^ ]+', 1, 1), '[^:]+', 1, 2 ),'') from querytest1;
REGEXP_REPLACE(D,REGEXP_SUBSTR(REGEXP_SUBSTR(D,'[^]+',1,1),'[^:]+',1,2),'')
#1(170)::"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299,:"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002,:"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925,:"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925] #2(0):  #3(5):-3141 #4(5):-3141 #5(5):21804 #6(7):3890750 #7(3):s11
so now it works because there are no special characters []{}
is there a way to escape them?
thank you in advance.

Answer 1

oraman wrote:
ok you're right I explain from the beginning.
create table t (q varchar2(4000), d varchar2(4000), result varchar2(4000));
insert into t (q,d) values ('#1(170):[{"type":"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299},{"type":"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002},{"type":"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925}] #2(0):  #3(5):-3141 #4(5):-3141 #5(5):21804 #6(7):3890750 #7(3):s11',
'UPDATE mytable set value=:1 , valuec=:2 , longvalue=:3 , doublevalue=:4  WHERE productattrnameid=:5  AND productid=:6   AND context=:7');
I would like to get the following:
select result from t;
UPDATE mytable set value='[{"type":"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299},{"type":"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002},{"type":"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925}]' , valuec=NULL , longvalue=-3141 , doublevalue=-3141  WHERE productattrnameid=21804  AND productid=3890750   AND context='s11';
the logic is to get the auditing data as ready to execute queries.
It looks you want to include every parameter where parameter is a pattern prefixed by #p1(lenght):param_value #p2(lenght):param_value etc.
Something like this?
set line 1000
col txt format a200
with querytest1 as
select '#1(170):[{"type":"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299},{"type":"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002},{"type":"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925}] #2(0):  #3(5):-3141 #4(5):-3141 #5(5):21804 #6(7):3890750 #7(3):s11' d
  from dual
select 'UPDATE mytable set value='''|| nvl(trim(regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^# ]+)', 1, 1, null, 1 )), 'NULL')||''''
       || chr(10) ||'     , valuec='||nvl(trim(regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^#]+)', 1, 2, null, 1 )), 'NULL')
       || chr(10) ||'     , longvalue='|| nvl(trim(regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^#]+)', 1, 3, null, 1 )),'NULL')
       || chr(10) ||'     , doublevalue='||nvl(trim(regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^#]+)', 1, 4, null, 1 )),'NULL') 
       || chr(10) ||' WHERE productattrnameid='||regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^#]+)', 1, 5, null, 1 )
       || chr(10) ||'   AND productid='||regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^#]+)', 1, 6, null, 1 )  
       || chr(10) ||'   AND context='''||regexp_substr (d,'#\d+\(\d+\):([^#]+)', 1, 7, null, 1 )||''';' txt
  from querytest1;
Result:
TXT                                                                                                                                                                                                    
UPDATE mytable set value='[{"type":"FACEBOOK","count":0,"lastEdition":1382627403299},{"type":"GOOGLE","count":0,"lastEdition":1381825285002},{"type":"EMAIL","count":2,"lastEdition":1381826322925}]'  
     , valuec=NULL                                                                                                                                                                                     
     , longvalue=-3141                                                                                                                                                                                 
     , doublevalue=-3141                                                                                                                                                                               
WHERE productattrnameid=21804                                                                                                                                                                         
   AND productid=3890750                                                                                                                                                                               
   AND context='s11';                                                                                                                                                                                  
1 row selected.
I have a problem formatting the output in the forum but I hope you get it.
Regards.
Alberto