Since your conditions are pretty specific you can do this: set @a='RA100'; select IF(@a REGEXP '[A-Za-z]{2}', SUBSTRING(@a,1,2), SUBSTRING(@a,1,1)) as letter, IF(@a REGEXP '[A-Za-z]{2}', SUBSTRING(@a,3), SUBSTRING(@a,2));
+--------+--------+ | letter | number | +--------+--------+ | RA | 100 | +--------+--------+ If this looks ugly, then that should be good motivation not to store multiple pieces of data as concatenated strings =) Regards, Gavin Towey -----Original Message----- From: Adam Gray [mailto:acg...@me.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 8:04 AM To: mysql@lists.mysql.com Subject: Split string by regex Hello, I'm working on a library OPAC system with books classified using the Library of Congress classification system. This takes the format of either one or two letters followed by some numbers, i.e. R272 or RA440 etc. What I want to do is split the field that holds this classification into two, one containing the letter portion and the other containing the number bit. So +-------+ | Class | +-------+ | R100 | +-------+ | RA65 | +-------+ | RP2 | +-------+ Would become +--------+--------+ | Class | Class2 | +--------+--------+ | R | 100 | +--------+--------+ | RA | 65 | +--------+--------+ | RP | 2 | +--------+--------+ etc Could this be done in MySQL? I want to do something along the lines of set class2 = SUBSTRING_INDEX(class,'[A-Z]',-1) but I understand this is not possible. Any ideas? Regards Adam -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql?unsub=gto...@ffn.com This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee, you are notified that reviewing, disseminating, disclosing, copying or distributing this e-mail is strictly prohibited. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any loss or damage caused by viruses or errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. [FriendFinder Networks, Inc., 220 Humbolt court, Sunnyvale, CA 94089, USA, FriendFinder.com -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql?unsub=arch...@jab.org