Question

I have data like this in a longtext column:

Name: Adam Smith
Name: Bob Johnson
Name: John Hansen

Is it possible to use a wildcard, within regexp? Say a user searches Smith, in pseudo-code:

SELECT * FROM mytable
WHERE `file` REGEXP 'Name: %Smith%\n'

I’m pretty sure the % wildcard isn’t a function within regexp. Is it possible to do this?

Answer 1

The REGEXP-using answer is:

SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE `file` REGEXP 'Name: .*Smith.*\n'

However LIKE is more suitable:

SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE `file` LIKE 'Name: %Smith%'