Re: Distinct Partial Matches: RegExp

Well, its not really a search.... that would be way easier. :-) What I'm looking for is a query that will give me the complete list of items that are distinct, minus the last number after the last hyphen. animal-dog animal-cat animal-bird -- Kevin Murphy Webmaster: Information and Marketing Services Western Nevada Community College www.wncc.edu 775-445-3326 On Aug 30, 2006, at 4:34 PM, Micah Stevens wrote: > > Select DISTINCT area from table like '$searchterms%'; > > In SQL, you can use the 'LIKE' keyword along with the '%' and '_' > wildcards.. '_' is one character, '%' is any number of chars. > > -Micah > > > Kevin Murphy wrote: >> This might be really easy, but I'm just not sure how to write this >> query and my searching on google isn't finding me things, probably >> because I am searching for the wrong terms. >> >> I have a bunch of records where the "area" column is like: >> >> animal-dog-5 >> animal-dog-3 >> animal-cat-1 >> animal-cat-22 >> animal-bird-5 >> >> What I want to do is run a distinct query on just the part >> previous to the number. >> >> animal-dog >> animal-cat >> animal-bird >> >> So in other words, something like this, but I am not sure if this >> is the right way to go: >> >> $query = "SELECT DISTINCT area FROM table WHERE REGEXP >> 'anynumberofletters dash anynumberofletters dash '" >> >> >> Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree with the REGEXP >> thing. Anyone care to point me in the right direction? >> >> >> --Kevin Murphy >> Webmaster: Information and Marketing Services >> Western Nevada Community College >> www.wncc.edu >> 775-445-3326 >> >> >> >> >> --Kevin Murphy >> Webmaster: Information and Marketing Services >> Western Nevada Community College >> www.wncc.edu >> 775-445-3326 >> >> >> >