--- cuppy_hub: salesforce cuppy_path: reference/official/data360/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/string-matching.md cuppy_section: docs cuppy_doc: NA0M-88EQ cuppy_doc_uuid: 85183885-adff-402f-a75d-fa64225771ba cuppy_permalink: https://cuppy.io/salesforce/d/NA0M-88EQ cuppy_version: 1 cuppy_updated: 2026-10-23T16:16:52.575Z cuppy_canonical: https://cuppy.io/salesforce/docs/reference/official/data360/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/string-matching cuppy_mcp: https://cuppy.io/mcp cuppy_body_sha256: eeaa99935ee793f1e4c516818c1aa1dacd6533f9bf7e2779eeba9bc7f2153846 # cuppy_body_sha256 is over the document body ALONE, excluding both generated blocks. --- > Mirror of (Salesforce, Data 360 Query Guide), read 2026-10-23. Salesforce's own page is the authority; this copy exists because that site refuses non-browser readers. ## String Pattern Matching **Applies to:** ✅ Data 360 SQL ✅ Tableau Hyper API Operators and functions for matching strings against patterns. Use pattern matching to: * **Search with wildcards** using `LIKE` for simple pattern matching with `%` and `_`. * **Match complex patterns** using regular expressions for advanced text processing. * **Extract and replace** substrings based on regex patterns. * **Count occurrences** of patterns within strings. * **LIKE vs regex**: Use `LIKE` for simple wildcard matching. Use regular expressions for complex patterns like repetition, alternation, and character classes. * **Case sensitivity**: Both `LIKE` and regex operators have case-insensitive variants (`ILIKE`, `~*`). * **Full string matching**: `LIKE` matches the entire string by default. Regular expressions match anywhere within the string unless anchored with `^` and `$`. Simple pattern matching with wildcards: * [LIKE / ILIKE](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/like.html) - Match patterns using `%` (any sequence) and `_` (single character) wildcards. Match strings against regular expression patterns: * [Regular Expression Match Operators](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regex-match.html) - The `~`, `~*`, `!~`, and `!~*` operators. Functions for searching, extracting, and manipulating text with regular expressions: * [REGEXP_COUNT](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-count.html) - Count occurrences of a pattern. * [REGEXP_INSTR](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-instr.html) - Find the position of a pattern. * [REGEXP_LIKE](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-like.html) - Check whether a string matches a pattern. * [REGEXP_REPLACE](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-replace.html) - Replace substrings matching a pattern. * [REGEXP_SPLIT_TO_ARRAY](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-split-to-array.html) - Split a string into an array using a regex delimiter. * [REGEXP_SUBSTR](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-substr.html) - Extract the substring that matches a pattern. Most characters match themselves. The following metacharacters have special meaning: | Metacharacter | Description | | --- | --- | | `.` | Matches any single character (except newline). | | `|` | Matches expressions to either side of it. | | `\` | Match a metacharacter with this escape character | Quantifiers specify how many times the preceding pattern must occur to match. By default, quantifiers are greedy, meaning they try to match as much text as possible. | Quantifier | Description | | --- | --- | | `*` | Zero or more | | `+` | One or more | | `?` | Zero or one | | `{n}` | Exactly n times | | `{n,}` | At least n times | | `{n,m}` | Between n and m times | Add `?` after a quantifier for lazy matching: `*?`, `+?`, `??`, `{n,}?`, `{n,m}?`. Lazy matching matches the least number of characters possible. For example, in the string `bold`, the greedy pattern `<.*>` matches the entire string. Whereas, the lazy pattern `<.*?>` only matches ``. The maximum number of repetitions for `{n}`, `{n,}`, `{n,m}` is 1000. Groups `( (...) )` combine characters and metacharacters into a single unit. You can use them to apply quantifiers and flags to sub-patterns. Use `(?flags:pattern)` syntax to apply flags to a group. | Flag | Description | | --- | --- | | `i` | Case-insensitive matching. | | `c` | Case-sensitive matching. | | `q` | Treats the pattern as a literal string. | | `g` | Tests against all characters in the string, not just the first match. | For example, `(?i:abc)` sets the case-insensitive flag, so it matches `abc`, `ABC`, `aBc`, and more. Character classes are a shorthand for common group patterns. The most general form of a character class is `[ ]`, matching any character contained in the square brackets. For example, you can abbreviate the pattern `(a|e|i|o|u)` to `[aeiou]`. Contiguous ranges of characters can be shortened by using a hyphen. For example, `[a-e]` is equivalent to `[abcde]`. The range notation disregards locale-specific collation. You can negate character classes by placing a caret (`^`) after the opening bracket. For example, `[^aeiou]` matches any character that is not a vowel. Most metacharacters have no special meaning inside a character class (For example, `[.]` matches a literal dot). The exceptions are `\\`, `^` (when at the start for negation), `-` (for ranges), and `]`. To include a literal `]` in a character class, put it first (for example, `[]abc]`) or escape it `[ab\\]c]`. To include a literal `-`, put it first or last, or escape it. | Pattern | Description | | --- | --- | | `[[:alpha:]]` | alphabetic characters (`[A-Za-z]`) | | `[[:upper:]]` | upper case letters (`[A-Z]`) | | `[[:lower:]]` | lower case letters (`[a-z]`) | | `[[:digit:]]`, `\d` | digits (`[0-9]`) | | `[[:xdigit:]]` | hexadecimal digits (`[0-9A-Fa-f]`) | | `\D` | non-digits (`[^0-9]`) | | `[[:alnum:]]` | alphanumeric characters ([`0-9A-Za-z]`) | | `[[:word:]]`, `\w` | word characters ([`0-9A-Za-z_]`) | | `\W` | non-word characters ([^0-9a-za-z_]) | | `[[:space:]]`, `\s` | whitespace (`[\t\n\f\r ]`) | | `\S` | non-whitespace (`[^ \t\n\f\r]`) | | `[[:blank:]]` | blankspace (`[\t ]`) | | `[[:punct:]]` | punctuation (`[!-/:-@[\-\`{-~;]`) | Anchors match a position rather than a character. These patterns can be used to anchor a match to a specific position in a string. For example, you can ensure that a given string fully matches a pattern by surrounding it with `^` and `$` anchors. | Anchor | Description | | --- | --- | | `^` | Start of string (or line, if `m` flag is set) | | `\A` | Start of string | | `$` | End of string (or line, if `m` flag is set) | | `\z` | End of string | | `\b` | ASCII word boundary (`\w` on one side; `\W`, `\A`, or `\z` on the other) | | `\B` | Not an ASCII word boundary | Find products starting with a specific prefix. Search regardless of case. Extract phone numbers from text. Check whether values match an expected format. Remove unwanted characters. * [String Functions](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/string-func.html) --- You are reading one file. 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