How Can I Extract Records Starting with a Specific String and a Digit Using MySQL Regular Expressions?

MySQL Regular Expression Queries: How to Match Strings with Lead-In and Suffix

In your quest to extract records that begin with a specific string followed by a digit, you encountered hurdles with LIKE queries. Let's delve deeper into the REGEXP operator to resolve your issue.

The LIKE operator, as you discovered, performs pattern matching using wildcards like %. However, it interprets brackets as literal characters, limiting your ability to match digits specifically.

Enter REGEXP, a more granular alternative to LIKE. It allows you to define your search pattern using regular expressions (regex) like '^ALA[0-9]. Regex offers precise control over character matching and allows you to specify exact matches, ranges, or special characters.

In your case, the regex '^ALA[0-9]' starts an anchor (^) to match the beginning of the string, followed by the string "ALA," then a literal digit ([0-9]). The modified query would look like this:

SELECT trecord FROM `tbl` WHERE (trecord REGEXP '^ALA[0-9]')

This regex ensures that only records matching the specified pattern will be retrieved. Replace the placeholder table name tbl with your actual table name, and you should be able to successfully retrieve records that start with "ALA" followed by a single digit.

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