Mirror of <https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/data/data-cloud-query-guide/references/dc-sql-reference/regexp-matches.html> (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.

`regexp_matches`

Applies to: ✅ Data 360 SQL ✅ Tableau Hyper API

Returns the captured groups of each match of a regular expression pattern against a string, as a set of rows.

<string>: The string to search.
<pattern>: The regular expression pattern to match. Must contain at least one capturing group.

flags: A string of option flags that modify matching behavior. Use g to return every match instead of only the first.

Flag	Description
`g`	Global matching — return every match, not just the first

Returns a set of rows, each containing a text[] array of the captured groups for one match.

Without the g flag, returns at most one row (the first match).
With the g flag, returns one row per match.
Returns no rows if <string> or <pattern> is NULL.

The pattern must contain at least one capturing group. A pattern with no capturing groups raises an error rather than returning the whole match. This differs from PostgreSQL’s regexp_matches, which falls back to the whole match when there are no groups.
Uses RE2/POSIX regular expression syntax.
Supports WITH ORDINALITY to number the returned rows. See Set Returning Functions.
Returns captured groups as a text[] array across a set of rows. For a single scalar result instead, use REGEXP_SUBSTR, which returns the text of the first captured group of the first match directly.
For detailed regex syntax, see Regular Expression Syntax.

Extract two captured groups from the first match.

Returns one row: ["bar", "beque"].

Use the g flag to return every match, one row per match.

Returns:

groups
[“bar”, “beque”]
[“bazil”, “barf”]

Returns:

groups	ordinality
[“bar”, “beque”]	1
[“bazil”, “barf”]	2

Raises an error because the pattern doesn’t contain a capturing group.