# REGEXP

> Use regular expressions to match patterns in strings using SQL in StackQL.

Source: https://stackql.io/language-spec/functions/re/regexp

Checks if the source string matches the regular expression pattern provided.

See also:  
[[`SELECT`]](/language-spec/select)

* * * 

## Syntax

```sql
SELECT source_string REGEXP pattern_expression AS match_result FROM <multipartIdentifier>;
```

## Arguments

__*source_string*__  
The string in which to search for the pattern.

__*pattern_expression*__  
The regular expression pattern to match against the source string.

## Return Value(s)
Returns a boolean value: `TRUE` if the source string matches the regular expression pattern, otherwise `FALSE`.

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## Examples

### Check if a string contains numbers

This example demonstrates checking whether the string 'the year is 2021' contains one or more numeric characters:

```sql
SELECT 'the year is 2021' REGEXP '[0-9]+' AS match_result;
```

This query will return `TRUE` because the string contains the substring '2021', which matches the pattern `[0-9]+`, indicating one or more digits.

### Validate email format

To check if a string is in a valid email format:

```sql
SELECT 'user@example.com' REGEXP '^[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}$' AS match_result;
```

This query returns `TRUE`, indicating that 'user@example.com' is formatted like a typical email address, matching the specified regular expression pattern.