Jackson, DeJuan wrote:
>
> > > Does the SQL92 standard have to be purchased from the ANSI Board?
> >
> > afaik, yes.
> >
> > > Well, my actual question has to do with LIKE. Could anyone who has
> > a
> > > copy of a standard send me the PATTERN syntax/meanings for LIKE in
> > > SQL92?
> >
> > Well, you may be hoping for more than is in any of your reference
> > books,
> > but there isn't any more to tell :)
> >
> > % ==> match any (sub)string
> > _ ==> match any single character
> > everything else matches itself
> >
> > In SQL92 (but not yet in Postgres; can't remember if there is a
> > workaround):
> >
> > LIKE 'pattern' ESCAPE 'char'
> >
> > allows a single character "char" if it precedes the two pattern
> > matching
> > characters to demote the "%" or "_" to act like a normal single
> > character. The Postgres regex stuff is much more powerful.
> >
> > Sorry, I think that's it :(
> >
> > - Tom
> Well, In all of the major Databases that I have worked with there is
> also the "[character_set]" matching operator.
> So a pattern of '[A-D]%' would match all word beginning with "A", "B",
> "C", or "D", and "[^character_set]" matches everything but the set.
> Looking at the current PgSQL like code this is ignored as well as the
> ESCAPE syntax. I'm trying to resolve the problem we have of LIKE not
> matching the pattern "%%" to anything even "%".
> But, looking at the code I see that "%%" or "%%%%%%%%" should be equal
> to "%" so it's not the LIKE matching code that's causing the problem
> (also, read I'm looking in the wrong spot).
>
> Does anybody know if the "[character_set]" stuff is part of the
> standard?
The SQL92 LIKE:
character-string-expression [NOT] LIKE pattern [ESCAPE
'escape-char']
allows only the special characters % and _
You need The SQL3 SIMILAR
character-string-expression [NOT] SIMILAR TO pattern [ESCAPE
'escape-char']
in this case pattern can involve additional special characters, not just
% and _ as in LIKE, but every regular expression or "[character_set]"
like you said. (Refer to "A Guide to SQL Standard 4th edition
Date-Rarwen, page 505).
Jose'