Is Regular Expressions a Practical Solution for Parsing Comma-Separated Strings into MySQL Temporary Tables?

Parsing Comma-Separated Strings into Temp Tables in MySQL: Is RegEx a Viable Solution?

While MySQL lacks a built-in split string function, this question raises the possibility of utilizing RegEx for parsing comma-separated strings into a temporary table. Let's explore this aspect.

Limitations of Using RegEx

Despite the question's suggestion, using RegEx for this purpose may not yield the desired results. MySQL's lack of a split string function makes it inherently challenging to split strings directly into a temp table.

Alternative Solutions

Instead of RegEx, consider the approaches mentioned in the answer:

1. Custom Function:

The SPLIT_STR() function provided in the answer can be used to progressively split the string character by character. By iterating over this function, incrementing the position with each iteration, and checking for an empty result, you can effectively split the string.

2. Looping and Inserting:

Using a loop, you can implement the following steps:

• Split the string using the SPLIT_STR() function.
• If the result is not empty, insert the value into the temp table.

Syntax for Looping:

Refer to the MySQL documentation for loop syntax, using FOR loops or WHILE loops as appropriate.

External Scripting Languages:

The answer also suggests using scripting languages like PHP for this task, emphasizing their suitability for string manipulation and database interactions compared to SQL alone.

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