Question

Is it possible to write an SQL statement for MySQL which finds all rows which match a specific arrangement of letters/numbers without using REGEXP?

i.e. SELECT myCol FROM myTable WHERE myCol=’{number}{number}{letter}‘

Should return 12X and 34Y but not 123X or 34YY

[I have asked a similar question before- (
SQL match on letter and number arrangement). The difference is that I have discovered that I cannot use regular expressions with the ADO.Net driver I am using. Whatsmore, I cannot update it since I am using Visual Studio 2003 which is not compatible with later versions.]

Answer 1

Try this:

SELECT myCol 
FROM myTable 
WHERE SUBSTRING(myCol, 1 , 1) >= 'A' 
AND SUBSTRING(myCol, 1 , 1) <= 'Z' 
AND SUBSTRING(myCol, 2 , 1) >= 'A' 
AND SUBSTRING(myCol, 2 , 1) <= 'Z' 
AND SUBSTRING(myCol, 3 , 1) >= '0' 
AND SUBSTRING(myCol, 3 , 1) <= '9'