REGEXP_SUBSTR - Take part before '*'

Question

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if it is possible to do this with REGEXP_SUBSTR?
WITH T as (
  SELECT 'Hello * The* World!' as str FROM dual)
SELECT trim(SUBSTR(str, 1, instr(str, '*')-1))
  FROM t;Not that I absolutely need it, but it's more a curiosity on how REGEXP_SUBSTR works actually. I would like to retrieve with REGEXP_SUBSTR the first part of a string before a given character, in this case '*'. Is this possible?
Thanks

Answer 1

WITH t AS    ( 1 )       ( 2 )     ( 3 )     ( 4-NULL )
     (SELECT 'Hello * The* World!' AS str
        FROM DUAL)
SELECT REGEXP_SUBSTR (str, '[^*]+'),
       REGEXP_SUBSTR (str, '[^*]+', 1, 1),
       REGEXP_SUBSTR (str, '[^*]+', 1, 2),
       REGEXP_SUBSTR (str, '[^*]+', 1, 3),
       REGEXP_SUBSTR (str, '[^*]+', 1, 4)
  FROM t
Hello  Hello  The World   (Null)Edited by: user2361373 on May 3, 2011 1:55 AM