Named Groups in T-SQL Regular Expressions

Andy Brownsword digs into a nice capability around using regular expressions:

Now that we’re on the cusp of adoption within SQL Server, it’ll be a valuable tool there too. However, after trying it out last week, one omission stood out – one of my favourite features for string parsing: Named Groups.

Where a usual expression can be used to match a string, Named Groups can also be used to extract details from the string. Using an example from Steve’s invitation where a PO number 20260720321433 begins with a year/month and then a number, this could be split with named groups:

Andy mentions the community displeasure for CLR and that displeasure annoys me to no end. I think 90% of the hysteria around CLR in SQL Server was a misunderstanding in terms and unwillingness to learn other programming languages. If you ever catch me in person, I’ll rant about it at length.