How to Use REGEXP for Precise String Matching in MySQL Queries: When LIKE Fails, What\'s the Alternative?

Using REGEXP for Regex Searching in MySQL Queries

Your query returns null records because LIKE operator is not suitable for matching a single character followed by a single-digit character. To achieve this, you can utilize the REGEXP operator, which provides more advanced regular expression matching capabilities in MySQL.

In your case, the following query will match records starting with the string "ALA" and followed by a single digit:

<code class="mysql">SELECT trecord FROM `tbl` WHERE (trecord REGEXP '^ALA[0-9]')</code>

Here's how the REGEXP operator works:

• ^ matches the beginning of the string.
• ALA matches the string "ALA" at the start of the string.
• [0-9] matches any single digit character.

Combining these elements, the above query will only match records that start with "ALA" and have a single digit character immediately after.

For example, if your table contains the following records:

trecord
-------
ALA0000
ALA0001
ALA0002
ALAB000

The query will return the following result:

trecord
-------
ALA0000
ALA0001
ALA0002

Note that the REGEXP operator is more powerful than LIKE and supports a wide range of regular expression patterns. It is a versatile tool for advanced string matching in MySQL queries.

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