Can you say something like "upper(regex_replace(name, '[:punct;]' ..."? ----------------- Ron Reidy Lead DBA Array BioPharma, Inc. 303.386.1480 -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of William B Ferguson Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:13 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Regular Expression confusion I'm getting confused on regular expressions (Oracle 10.1.0.4). I want to strip all punctuation from a user supplied input string except for the = '%' wildcard character. To see if my formatting of the syntax was correct, I wrote the following sql statement: SQL> set escape off SQL> select UPPER(regexp_replace(name,'[''''|"|;| |-|,|.]')) test_data 2 from names 3 where upper(regexp_replace(name,'[[:punct:][:space:]]')) 4 like ('%JGO%'); TEST_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A-JGOLDMININGCO AJGOLDMINE AJGOLDMININGCO AJGOLDMININGCO AJGOLDMININGCO EJGOGGINSPROSPECT JJGORDONQUARRY 7 rows selected. Not quite what I wanted, as a hyphen still appears. So, I tried escaping the hyphen: SQL> select UPPER(regexp_replace(name,'[''''|"|;| |\-|,|.]')) test_data 2 from names 3 where upper(regexp_replace(name,'[[:punct:][:space:]]')) 4 like ('%JGO%'); TEST_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A-JGMC AJGM AJGMC AJGMC AGMC EJGP JGQ 7 rows selected. Definitely not what I wanted! So, I figured I'd try adding an extra set = of brackets (like the second regexp_replace uses): SQL> select UPPER(regexp_replace(name,'[[''''|"|;| |\-|,|.]]'))=20 SQL> test_data 2 from names 3 where upper(regexp_replace(name,'[[:punct:][:space:]]')) 4 like ('%JGO%'); TEST_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A-J GOLD MINING CO A. J. GOLD MINE A. J. GOLD MINING CO. A.J. GOLD MINING CO. AJ GOLD MINING CO. E J GOGGINS PROSPECT JJ GORDON QUARRY 7 rows selected. That had the effect of negating what I wanted to accomplish in the first place! I might as well have just selected name. And if I changed the first regexp_replace to UPPER(regexp_replace(name,'[''''|"|;| |'-'|,|.]')), Then I get an ORA-01722 invalid number. How do I modify my first regexp_replace to also strip out the hyphen = while allowing the '%' wildcard, unlike the :punct: class? ------------------------------------------------------------ Bill Ferguson U.S. Geological Survey - Minerals Information Team PO Box 25046, MS-750 Denver, Colorado 80225 Voice (303)236-8747 ext. 321 Fax (303)236-4208 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l This electronic message transmission is a PRIVATE communication which = contains information which may be confidential or privileged. The information is = intended=20 to be for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are = not the=20 intended recipient, please be aware that any disclosure, copying, = distribution=20 or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. Please notify = the sender of the delivery error by replying to this message, or notify us = by telephone (877-633-2436, ext. 0), and then delete it from your system. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l