Regular expressions, or regex, are powerful tools for defining patterns in text. In SQL, they extend the capabilities of the LIKE operator, enabling more complex searches and validations. While the specific syntax for regex might vary slightly across different SQL databases, the core concepts remain consistent. Regex allows you to specify patterns that match a range of characters, rather than just exact matches. This is crucial for tasks like validating email addresses, extracting specific information from log files, or finding records that contain particular keywords in a non-exact way. For example, you might want to find all customer names that start with the letter 'A'. Using regex, you could specify a pattern that matches any string beginning with 'A', making the search more flexible than a simple LIKE clause. Understanding regex syntax is key to effectively using this powerful feature. Different databases may have slightly different implementations of regex, so it's always a good idea to consult the documentation for your specific database.
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