Search for substring, return another substring

Question

I need to search for and display a part of a string field. The string value from record to record may be different. For example:

---

Record #1

String Value:

IA_UnsafesclchOffense0IA_ReceivedEdServDuringExp0IA_SeriousBodilyInjuryN

---

Record #2

String Value:

 IA_ReasonForRemovalTIA_Beh_Inc_Num1392137419IA_RemovalTypeNIA_UnsafesclchOffense0IA_ReceivedEdServDuringExp0IA_SeriousBodilyInjuryN

---

Record #3

String Value:

IA_UnsafesclchOffense0IA_RemovalTypeSIA_ReasonForRemovalPIA_ReceivedEdServDuringExp0IA_Beh_Inc_Num1396032888IA_SeriousBodilyInjuryN

---

In each case, I need to search for IA_Beh_Inc_Num. Assuming it's found, and IF it's followed by numeric data, I want to RETURN the numeric portion of that data. The numeric data, when present, will always be 10 characters. In other words, record #1 should return no value, record #2 should return 1392137419 and record #3 should return 1396032888

Is there a way to do this within a select statement without having to write a full function with PL/SQL?

Answer 1

This would work:

SELECT 
CASE WHEN instr(value, 'IA_Beh_Inc_Num') > 0
     THEN substr(substr(value, instr(value, 'IA_Beh_Inc_Num'), 25),15,10)
     ELSE 'not found'
END AS result
FROM example

See this SQL Fiddle.

Answer 2

This should be easy with a Regular Expression: find a search string and check if it's followed by 10 digits:

REGEXP_SUBSTR(col, '(?<=IA_Beh_Inc_Num)([0-9]{10})')

but Oracle doesn't seem to support RegEx lookahead, so it's bit more complicated:

REGEXP_SUBSTR(value, '(IA_Beh_Inc_Num)([0-9]{10})',1,1,'i',2)

Remarks: the search is case-insensitive and if there are less than 10 digits NULL will be returned.

Answer 3

Angelo's answer is correct for Oracle, as the question asked. For those from SQL Server coming across this, the below would work:

SELECT CASE 
        WHEN CHARINDEX('IA_Beh_Inc_Num', StringColumn) = 0
            THEN NULL
        ELSE SUBSTRING(StringColumn, CHARINDEX('IA_Beh_Inc_Num', StringColumn) + LEN('IA_Beh_Inc_Num'), 10)
        END AS unix_time
    ,*
FROM MyTable

Answer 4

EDIT:

Modified query to select all rows. The query prints "NOT A TIMESTAMP" if IA_Beh_Inc_Num does not exist within the string or if it is not followed by 10 numbers.

SELECT
  DECODE
    (
    REGEXP_INSTR (value, 'IA_Beh_Inc_Num[0-9]{10}'), 
    0, 
    'NOT A TIMESTAMP', 
    SUBSTR(value, INSTR(value, 'IA_Beh_Inc_Num')+14, 10)
    ) timestamp
FROM example;

SQL Fiddle