String replace using regular expressions

I'm not very good at regular expressions, but I would like my script to replace
<a href="somepage.html">
by
<a href="event:somepage">
How do I do this? Thanks in advance!

Replacing a string that matches a certain pattern with another string is one of the more common RegEx tasks. There is documentation on using them here:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=12_Using_Regular_Expressions_01.ht ml
hth,
matt horn
flex docs

Similar Messages

Changeparticular characters in a string by using regular expressions ...

Hello Everyone,
I am trying to write a function by using oracles regular expression function REGEXP_REPLACE but I could not succed till now.
My problem as follows, I have a text in a column for example let say 'sdfsdf Sdfdfs Sdfd' I want replace all s and S characters with X and make the text look like 'XdfXdf XdfdfX Xdfd'.
Is it possible by using regular expressions in oracle ?
Can you give me some clues ?
Thank you

SSU wrote:
Hello Everyone,
I am trying to write a function by using oracles regular expression function REGEXP_REPLACE but I could not succed till now.
My problem as follows, I have a text in a column for example let say 'sdfsdf Sdfdfs Sdfd' I want replace all s and S characters with X and make the text look like 'XdfXdf XdfdfX Xdfd'.
Is it possible by using regular expressions in oracle ?
Can you give me some clues ?
Thank you
SQL> SELECT
2 regexp_replace('sdfsdf Sdfdfs Sdfd','s|S','X') from dual;
REGEXP_REPLACE('SD
XdfXdf XdfdfX XdfdRegards,
Achyut

String extract using regular expression

Hi
I have text like this "<a>45</a><ct>Hi</ct><R>45 85</R><H>Here</H>" .I want to extract using regular expression or any techniques the text between <R> and </R> also need to replace the space with pipe between 45 and 85 like "45|85"
Edited by: vishnu prakash on Mar 2, 2012 4:42 AM

Hi,
Here's one way:
REPLACE ( REGEXP_REPLACE ( txt
                , '.*<R>(.*)</R>.*'
                , '\1'
     , '|'
     )This assumes there is only one <R> tag in txt.
Always say which version of Oracle you're using. The expression above will work in Oralce 10 and up, but starting in Oracle 11 you can use REGEXP_SUBSTR rather than the less intuitive REGEXP_REPLACE.
Edited by: Frank Kulash on Mar 2, 2012 7:48 AM

Find/Replace Using Regular Expressions

Can someone help me with this...I am using Regular expressions to
FIND:
http.*lid=([^&"]*)[^"]*
REPLACE:
$set(\1,ID_id,code)$
So that in the following it will change this:
a href="http://www.test.com/shc/s/home_10153_12605?lid=Search" rilt="Search"
To this:
a href="$set(Search,ID_id,code)$" rilt="Search
Those expressions work in Notepad++ but when i use dreamweaver it just replaces the http... with "$set(\1,ID_id,code)$" and doesnt reference the "search"
Any help?
Thanks

Let me begin by saying I'm a complete idiot with DW's Reg Ex. I use Search Specific Tag whenever possible. See screenshot below.
Try this on your Current Document to see if it works. Then make a back-up copy of site before attempting it on Entire Local Site as you cannot "Undo" this process.
Good luck,
Nancy O.

GUI Based tool for search and replace using regular expression

Hi,
I have developed this small tool which can be used for search and replace in multiple files using reqular expressions.
Features:
1. Full regular expression
2. GUI based with Highlighted results
3. Preview for replace available
4. Pure Java based.
5. Its like unix sed and grep
Please visit below site for download/more information :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/regexsearchrepl/
Thanks,
Hitesh Viseria

I agree with you, it cannot compete grep/sed/awk combination. I couldnt find anything even close to grep/sed for windows which will also have a preview and most important, free. That is what made me write this tool. I am trying to
improve its performance and more features like history etc.
Any suggestions on additional features are most welcome.

Splitting html ul tags and their content into string arrays using regular expression

<ul data-role="listview" data-filter="true" data-inset="true">
<li data-role="list-divider"></li><li><a href="#"><h3>
my title
</h3><p><strong></strong></p></a></li>
</ul>
<ul data-role="listview" data-filter="true" data-inset="true">
<li data-role="list-divider"></li><li>test.</li>
</ul>
I need to be able to slip this html into two arrays hold the entire <ul></ul> tag. Please help.
Thanks.

Hi friend.
This forum is to discuss problems of C# development. Your question is not related to the topic of this forum.
You'll need to post it in the dedicated Archived Forums N-R > Regular Expressions
for better support. Thanks for understanding.
Best Regards,
Kristin

String Manipulation using Regular Expression

Hello Guys,
I stuck in a situation wherein I want to extract specific data from a column of the table .
Below are the values for a particular column wherein I want to ignore values along with bracket which are in bracket and which are like .pdf,.doc .
Tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium (0) 451CDHA.pdf
AM57001A(ASRM549CDH).DOC
AM23021A Identity of sulfate (draft)
PG-1183.E.2 (0.25 mg FCT)
AS149656A (DEV AERO APPL HFA WHT PROVENTIL)
Stability report (RSR) Annex2 semi-solid form (internal information)
TSE(Batch#USLF000332)-242CDH, Lancaster synthesis.pdf
TR3018520A Addendum 1 (PN 3018520)
AM10311A Particle size air-jet sieving (constant sieving) (draft)
ASE00099B Addendum (PN E000099) 90 mesh
AM37101_312-99 (Z11c) Palladium by DCP.doc
PS21001A_1H-NMR.doc (PN 332-00)
AM68311A (Q-One CP 33021.02) Attachment
AM68202-1A (BioReliance no. 02.102006) Attachment
I want below output for above values for column
Trisdipalladium451CDHA
AM57001A
AM23021A Identity of sulfate
PG-1183.E.2
Thanks in advance

Like this?
SQL> with t
2 as
3 (
4 select 'Tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium (0) 451CDHA.pdf' str from dual
5 union all
6 select 'AM57001A(ASRM549CDH).DOC' str from dual
7 union all
8 select 'AM23021A Identity of sulfate (draft)' str from dual
9 union all
10 select 'PG-1183.E.2 (0.25 mg FCT)' str from dual
11 union all
12 select 'AS149656A (DEV AERO APPL HFA WHT PROVENTIL)' str from dual
13 union all
14 select 'Stability report (RSR) Annex2 semi-solid form (internal information)' str from dual
15 union all
16 select 'TSE(Batch#USLF000332)-242CDH, Lancaster synthesis.pdf' str from dual
17 union all
18 select 'TR3018520A Addendum 1 (PN 3018520)' str from dual
19 union all
20 select 'AM10311A Particle size air-jet sieving (constant sieving) (draft)' str from dual
21 union all
22 select 'ASE00099B Addendum (PN E000099) 90 mesh' str from dual
23 union all
24 select 'AM37101_312-99 (Z11c) Palladium by DCP.doc' str from dual
25 union all
26 select 'PS21001A_1H-NMR.doc (PN 332-00)' str from dual
27 union all
28 select 'AM68311A (Q-One CP 33021.02) Attachment' str from dual
29 union all
30 select 'AM68202-1A (BioReliance no. 02.102006) Attachment' str from dual
31 )
32 select str
33      , regexp_replace(str, '($[^)]+$)|(\..{3})') str_new
34    from t;
STR                                                                    STR_NEW
Tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium (0) 451CDHA.pdf                  Trisdipalladium 451CDHA
AM57001A(ASRM549CDH).DOC                                              AM57001A
AM23021A Identity of sulfate (draft)                                  AM23021A Identity of sulfate
PG-1183.E.2 (0.25 mg FCT)                                              PG-1183
AS149656A (DEV AERO APPL HFA WHT PROVENTIL)                            AS149656A
Stability report (RSR) Annex2 semi-solid form (internal information) Stability report Annex2 semi-solid form
TSE(Batch#USLF000332)-242CDH, Lancaster synthesis.pdf                  TSE-242CDH, Lancaster synthesis
TR3018520A Addendum 1 (PN 3018520)                                    TR3018520A Addendum 1
AM10311A Particle size air-jet sieving (constant sieving) (draft)      AM10311A Particle size air-jet sieving
ASE00099B Addendum (PN E000099) 90 mesh                                ASE00099B Addendum 90 mesh
AM37101_312-99 (Z11c) Palladium by DCP.doc                            AM37101_312-99 Palladium by DCP
PS21001A_1H-NMR.doc (PN 332-00)                                        PS21001A_1H-NMR
AM68311A (Q-One CP 33021.02) Attachment                                AM68311A Attachment
AM68202-1A (BioReliance no. 02.102006) Attachment                      AM68202-1A Attachment
14 rows selected.

Using Regular Expressions to replace Quotes in Strings

I am writing a program that generates Java files and there are Strings that are used that contain Quotes. I want to use regular expressions to replace " with \" when it is written to the file. The code I was trying to use was:
String temp = "\"Hello\" i am a \"variable\"";
temp = temp.replaceAll("\"","\\\\\"");
however, this does not work and when i print out the code to the file the resulting code appears as:
String someVar = ""Hello" i am a "variable"";
and not as:
String someVar = "\"Hello\" i am a \"variable\"";
I am assumming my regular expression is wrong. If it is, could someone explain to me how to fix it so that it will work?
Thanks in advance.

Thanks, appearently I'm just doing something weird that I just need to look at a little bit harder.

Format string using Regular Expression

Input string output format...
SELECT q'<select ab_c "ABC", efg "EFG" from dual>' str FROM DUAL
Output:
STR
select ab_c "ABC", efg "EFG" from dual
Required output format using regular expression...
STR
select 'ab_c' "ABC", 'efg' "EFG" from dual

Regular expressions have many limitations as parsing tools, and you didn't specify the rules you wanted. This expression puts quotes around the non blank string before a quoted string:
SELECT regexp_replace(q'<select ab_c "ABC", efg "EFG" from dual>',
                      '([^" ]+)( +"[^ ]*")' , '''\1''\2' ) str FROM DUAL;
STR
select 'ab_c' "ABC", 'efg' "EFG" from dual
{code}
It is not robust - a missing " will confuse it, and you should be using bind variables anyway.

Using regular expressions to get a customized output

Hi,
I have a string/varchar variable with the data ',a,b,c,' in it.
I want the display as follows:
a
b
c
I would like to get the similar output using regular expressions.
How do I get this output using REGEXP_REPLACE or REGEXP_SUBSTR?
Please do the needful.
Thanks & Regards,
Rakshit

I remember that, however if we look closer, that one has a little flaw: The 2nd row should be null, because ",," indicates an empy field. The MODEL clause solution works just fine in this case:
with t as (select 'aaaa,,bbbb,cccc,dddd,eeee,ffff' col1 from dual)
-- end of sample data
SELECT col_new
FROM t
MODEL
   PARTITION BY (ROWNUM rn)
   DIMENSION BY (0 dim)
   MEASURES(col1, col1 col_new)
   RULES ITERATE(99) UNTIL (ITERATION_NUMBER = LENGTH(REGEXP_REPLACE(col1[0], '[^,]')))
                (col_new[ITERATION_NUMBER] = REPLACE(REGEXP_SUBSTR(col1[0], '(^|,)[^,]*', 1, ITERATION_NUMBER+1), ','))
COL_NEW
aaaa
bbbb
cccc
dddd
eeee
ffff
7 Zeilen ausgewählt.Update: I had this nagging feeling that I missed something, and there it was. If you want to see what the problem with my solution is, change the example to
with t as (select ',aaaa,,bbbb,cccc,dddd,eeee,ffff' col1 from dual)So I went back and tried to fix BlueShadows approach. Here it is:
with t as (select 'aaaa,,bbbb,cccc,dddd,eeee,ffff' txt from dual)
-- end of sample data
SELECT REPLACE(REGEXP_SUBSTR(',' || txt, ',[^,]*', 1, level), ',') col_new
FROM t
CONNECT BY level <= length(regexp_replace(txt,'[^,]*'))+1
;C.

Finding URLs using regular expression.

I have an requirement where user will type some text containing URLs like "Please visit this site http://www.google.com/e/qHvQcWco`~!@#$%^&*()-7747. Thank you". This text has to be modified as below before saving it to the database.
"Please visit this site <a href='http://www.google.com/e/qHvQcWco`~!@#$%^&*()-7747'>http://www.google.com/e/qHvQcWco`~!@#$%^&*()-7747</a>. Thank you"
I am using regular expression (http|https)://.+?\\s which marks the end of the url with a white space character.This pattern doesn't work if the URL is located at the end of the string since there will be no space at the end.
For example if the string is "Please visit this site http://www.google.com/e/qHvQcWco`~!@#$%^&*()-7747" the regex will fail.
My acutal problem is to find the URL irrespective its position within the string.
Pattern urlPattern = Pattern.compile("(http|https)://.+?\\s", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
Matcher matcher = urlPattern.matcher(plainText);
Map stringIndexMap = new HashMap();
//Searching the input string for urlPattern...
while(matcher.find()) {
String urlString = matcher.group();
//Storing the urls in a hashmap with their indices as keys....
stringIndexMap.put(new Integer(matcher.start()), urlString.trim());
Set keySet = stringIndexMap.keySet();
Iterator it = keySet.iterator();
//Iterating over the hashmap containing urls...
while(it.hasNext()) {
String urlString = (String) stringIndexMap.get(it.next());
* Replacing the url string in the input text with <a href="#" onclick="window.open('<urlString>')"
* using String index
clickableURLString.replace(clickableURLString.indexOf(urlString),
clickableURLString.indexOf(urlString) + urlString.length(),
"<a href=\"#\" onclick=\"window.open('" + urlString
+ "')\">" + urlString + "</a>");
return clickableURLString.toString();

The end of the input is '$' as a regex.
import java.util.regex.*;
public class Prasanna{
public static void main(String[] args){
    String text
= "Please visit this site http://www.google.com/e/qHvQcWco`~!@#$%^&*()-7747";
//    String regex = "(http|https)://.+?(?:\\s|$)"; // this works
    String regex = "(http|https)://[^ ]+";          // this also works
    Pattern pat = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
    Matcher mat = pat.matcher(text);
    while (mat.find()){
      System.out.println(mat.group());
}

Pattern matching using Regular expression

Hi,
I am working on pattern matching using regular expression. I the table, I have 2 columns A and B
A has value 'A499BPAU4A32A386KBCZ4C13C41D20E'
B has value like '*CZ4*M11*7NQ+RDR+RSM-R9A-R9B'
the requirement is that I have to match the columns of B in A. If there is a value with * sign, this must be present in A like 'CZ4' should exit in string A.
The issue I am facing is that there are 2 values with * sign. The code works fine for first match (CZ4) but it does not look further as M11 does not exist in A.
I used the condition
AND instr(A,substr(REGEXP_SUBSTR(B, '*[^*]{3}'),2) ,1)=0
First of all, is this possible to match multiple patterns in one condition?
If yes, please suggest.
Thanks

user2544469 wrote:
Thanks a lot Frank. This query worked wonderful for the test data I have provided however I have some concerns:
- query doesnot include the column BOOK which is a mandatory check.Sorry, that was my mistake. It was a very easy mistake to make, since you posted sample data where it didn't matter. Instead of doing a cross-join between vn and got_must_have_cnt, do an inner join, using book. That means book will have to be in got_must_have_cnt, and all the sub-queries from which it descends. Look for comments that say "March 22".
If you want to treat '+' in test_cat.codes as '*', then the simplest thing is probably just to use REPLACE, so that when the table has '+', you use '*' instead.
WITH     got_token_cnt     AS
     SELECT     cat
     ,     book                                        -- Added March 22
     ,     REPLACE (codes, '+', '*') AS codes                    -- If desired. Changed March 22
     ,     LENGTH (codes) - LENGTH ( TRANSLATE ( codes
                                                   , 'x*+-'
                                  , 'x'
                         ) AS token_cnt
     FROM    test_cat
,     cntr     AS
     SELECT     LEVEL     AS n
     FROM     ( SELECT MAX (token_cnt)     AS max_token_cnt
             FROM        got_token_cnt
     CONNECT BY     LEVEL     <= max_token_cnt
,     got_tokens     AS
     SELECT     t.cat
     ,     t.book                                        -- Added March 22
     ,     REGEXP_SUBSTR ( t.codes
                     , '[*+-]'
                     , 1
                     , c.n
                     )          AS token_type
     ,     SUBSTR ( REGEXP_SUBSTR ( t.codes
                                   , '[*+-][^*+-]*'
                           , 1
                           , c.n
               , 2
               )          AS token
     FROM     got_token_cnt     t
     JOIN     cntr          c ON     c.n     <= t.token_cnt
,     got_must_have_cnt     AS
     SELECT       cat, book                                   -- Changed March 22
     ,       COUNT (CASE WHEN token_type = '*' THEN 1 END) AS must_have_cnt
     FROM       got_tokens
     GROUP BY cat, book                                   -- Changed March 22
SELECT       mh.cat
,       vn.vn_no
FROM       got_must_have_cnt     mh
JOIN                    vn ON mh.book     = vn.book               -- Changed March 22
LEFT OUTER JOIN      got_tokens     gt ON     mh.cat                  = gt.cat
                                 AND INSTR (vn.codes, gt.token) > 1
GROUP BY mh.cat
,            mh.must_have_cnt
,            vn.vn_no
HAVING       COUNT (CASE WHEN gt.token_type = '*' THEN 1 END)     = mh.must_have_cnt
AND       COUNT (CASE WHEN gt.token_type = '-' THEN 1 END)     = 0
ORDER BY mh.cat
- query is very slow with 60000 records in vn table. Cost is somewhere around 36000.See these threads:
When your query takes too long ...
HOW TO: Post a SQL statement tuning request - template posting
Relational databases were designed to have (at most) one piece of information in each column. If you decide to have multiple items in the same column (as you have a variable number of tokens in the codes column), don't be surprised if that makes things slower and more complicated. Most of the query I posted, and perhaps most of the time needed, is jsut to normalize the data. If you stored the data in a narmalized form, perhaps something like got_tokens, then you wouldn't need the first 3 sub-queries that I posted.
Edited by: Frank Kulash on Mar 22, 2011 12:04 PM

Procedure using regular expression

How to write a procedure using regular expression where i pass a string as input
The procedure should check whether it is a valid email address or not
Please help me

Hello,
perhaps you don't need to code it, because it's already there.
When you use the database to send your mails it or the appropriate package throws the exception
ORA-29279: Permanenter SMTP-Fehler: 501 5.5.4 Invalid Address
When you just need a procedure to check it you can write a wrapper for a java function.
import javax.mail.internet.*;
import oracle.sql.NUMBER;
public class mail_utility {
public static NUMBER validate_address(String rfc822Address) {
    int rc = 0;
    try {
      InternetAddress ia = new InternetAddress(rfc822Address);
      rc = 1;
    } catch (AddressException ae) {
      rc = 0;
    } catch (Exception e) {
      rc = -1;
    } finally {
      return new NUMBER(rc);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION VALIDATE_ADDRESS (p_address in varchar2)
return number
as language java name
'mail_utility.validate_address(java.lang.String) return oracle.sql.NUMBER';I think i've got it from the forum but i don't remember from whom.
Bernd

Request some help, over procedure's performance uses regular expressions for its functinality

Hi All,
        Below is the procedure, having functionalities of populating two tables. For first table, its a simple insertion process but for second table, we need to break the soruce record as per business requirement and then insert into the table. [Have used regular expressions for that]
        Procedure works fine but it takes around 23 mins for processing 1mm of rows.
        Since this procedure would be used, parallely by different ETL processes, so append hint is not recommended.
        Is there any ways to improve its performance, or any suggestion if my approach is not optimized? Thanks for all help in advance.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE SONARDBO.PRC_PROCESS_EXCEPTIONS_LOGS_TT
     P_PROCESS_ID       IN        NUMBER,
     P_FEED_ID          IN        NUMBER,
     P_TABLE_NAME       IN        VARCHAR2,
     P_FEED_RECORD      IN        VARCHAR2,
     P_EXCEPTION_RECORD IN        VARCHAR2
    IS
    PRAGMA AUTONOMOUS_TRANSACTION;
    V_EXCEPTION_LOG_ID     EXCEPTION_LOG.EXCEPTION_LOG_ID%TYPE;
    BEGIN
    V_EXCEPTION_LOG_ID :=EXCEPTION_LOG_SEQ.NEXTVAL;
         INSERT INTO SONARDBO.EXCEPTION_LOG
             EXCEPTION_LOG_ID, PROCESS_DATE, PROCESS_ID,EXCEPTION_CODE,FEED_ID,SP_NAME
            ,ATTRIBUTE_NAME,TABLE_NAME,EXCEPTION_RECORD
            ,DATA_STRUCTURE
            ,CREATED_BY,CREATED_TS
         VALUES
         (   V_EXCEPTION_LOG_ID
            ,TRUNC(SYSDATE)
            ,P_PROCESS_ID
            ,'N/A'
            ,P_FEED_ID
            ,NULL
            ,NULL
            ,P_TABLE_NAME
            ,P_FEED_RECORD
            ,NULL
            ,USER
            ,SYSDATE
        INSERT INTO EXCEPTION_ATTR_LOG
            EXCEPTION_ATTR_ID,EXCEPTION_LOG_ID,EXCEPTION_CODE,ATTRIBUTE_NAME,SP_NAME,TABLE_NAME,CREATED_BY,CREATED_TS,ATTRIBUTE_VALUE
        SELECT
            EXCEPTION_ATTR_LOG_SEQ.NEXTVAL          EXCEPTION_ATTR_ID
            ,V_EXCEPTION_LOG_ID                     EXCEPTION_LOG_ID
            ,REGEXP_SUBSTR(str,'[^|]*',1,1)         EXCEPTION_CODE
            ,REGEXP_SUBSTR(str,'[^|]+',1,2)         ATTRIBUTE_NAME
            ,'N/A'                                  SP_NAME
            ,p_table_name
            ,USER
            ,SYSDATE
            ,REGEXP_SUBSTR(str,'[^|]+',1,3)         ATTRIBUTE_VALUE
        FROM
        SELECT
             REGEXP_SUBSTR(P_EXCEPTION_RECORD, '([^^])+', 1,t2.COLUMN_VALUE) str
        FROM
            DUAL t1 CROSS JOIN
                    TABLE
                        CAST
                            MULTISET
                                SELECT LEVEL
                                FROM DUAL
                                CONNECT BY LEVEL <= REGEXP_COUNT(P_EXCEPTION_RECORD, '([^^])+')
                            AS SYS.odciNumberList
                    ) t2
        WHERE REGEXP_SUBSTR(str,'[^|]*',1,1) IS NOT NULL
        COMMIT;
       EXCEPTION
         WHEN OTHERS THEN
         ROLLBACK;
         RAISE;
    END;
Many Thanks,
Arpit

Regex's are known to be CPU intensive specially when dealing with large number of rows.
If you have to reduce the processing time, you need to tune the Select statements.
One suggested change could be to change the following query
SELECT
             REGEXP_SUBSTR(P_EXCEPTION_RECORD, '([^^])+', 1,t2.COLUMN_VALUE) str
        FROM
            DUAL t1 CROSS JOIN
                    TABLE
                        CAST
                            MULTISET
                                SELECT LEVEL
                                FROM DUAL
                                CONNECT BY LEVEL <= REGEXP_COUNT(P_EXCEPTION_RECORD, '([^^])+')
                            AS SYS.odciNumberList
                    ) t2
to
SELECT REGEXP_SUBSTR(P_EXCEPTION_RECORD, '([^^])+', 1,level) str
FROM DUAL
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= REGEXP_COUNT(P_EXCEPTION_RECORD, '([^^])+')
Before looking for any performance benefit, you need to ensure that this does not change your output.
How many substrings are you expecting in the P_EXCEPTION_RECORD? If less than 5, it will be better to opt for SUBSTR and INSTR combination as it might work well with the number of records you are working with. Only trouble is, you will have to write different SUBSTR and INSTR statements for each column to be fetched.
How are you calling this procedure? Is it not possible to work with Collections? Delimited strings are not a very good option as it requires splitting of the data every time you need to refer to.

One for the Tekkies: How to get this output using REGULAR EXPRESSIONS?

How to get the below output using REGULAR EXPRESSIONS??
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
1* CREATE TABLE cus___addresses (full_address VARCHAR2(200 BYTE))
SQL> /
Table created.
SQL> PROMPT Address Format is: House #/Housename, street, City, Zip Code, COUNTRY
House #/Housename, street, City, Zip Code, COUNTRY
SQL> INSERT INTO cus___addresses VALUES('1, 3rd street, Lansing, MI 49001, USA');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO cus___addresses VALUES('3B, fifth street, Clinton, OK 74103, USA');
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO cus___addresses VALUES('Rose Villa, Stanton Grove, Murray, TN 37183, USA');
1 row created.
SQL> SELECT * FROM cus___addresses;
FULL_ADDRESS
1, 3rd street, Lansing, MI 49001, USA
3B, fifth street, Clinton, OK 74103, USA
Rose Villa, Stanton Grove, Murray, TN 37183, USA
SQL> The REG EXP query shouLd output the ZIP codes: i.e. 49001, 74103, 37183 in 3 rows.Edited by: user12240205 on Jun 18, 2012 3:19 AM

Hi,
user12240205 wrote:
... Frank, ʃʃp's method, I understand. But your method, although correct, I find it difficult to understand.
Could you explain how you did this?? What does '.*(\d{5})\D*' and '\1' mean???
Your method is better because it uses only ONE reg expression function. ʃʃp's uses 2.In Oracle 10.2 (I believe) and higher, '\d' is equivalent to '[[:digit:]]', and '\D' is equivalent to '[^[:digit:]]'. I find '\d' and '\D' easier to type, but there's nothing wrong with using '[[:digit:]]' and '[^[:digit:]]'.
'.*' means "0 or more of any character".
'\D*' means "0 or more non-digits".
The whole expression, '.*(\d{5})\D*' means:
a. 0 or more characters (any characters)
b. 5 digits
c. 0 or more non-digits.
'\1' is a Backreference . It means the sub-string that matched the pattern after the 1st '(', up to (but not including) its matching ')'. In this case, that means the sub-string that matched '\d{5}', or b. using the explanation immediately above.
So the entire REGEXP_REPLACE call means "When you see a sub-string consisting of a., follwed immediately by b., followed immedately by c., replace that sub-string with b. alone."

String replace using regular expressions

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