From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: "Campbell, Lance" <lance@illinois.edu>
cc: "pgsql-sql@postgresql.org" <pgsql-sql@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: Find and replace
In-reply-to: <35490FCC-14AF-4D90-BF6E-A4F00518E41E@illinois.edu>
References: <35490FCC-14AF-4D90-BF6E-A4F00518E41E@illinois.edu>
Comments: In-reply-to "Campbell, Lance" <lance@illinois.edu>
	message dated "Wed, 11 Sep 2019 20:24:07 -0000"
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Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2019 16:49:35 -0400
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"Campbell, Lance" <lance@illinois.edu> writes:
> I don=E2=80=99t know the best way to do this.  I need to do a find and r=
eplace in text fields.  The value I need to find and replace may occur mor=
e than once in each field per record.

> The value I am trying to match on:
> Starts with a single { .
> Ends with a single } .
> In between these brackets can be the characters 0-9, a-z, A-Z, hyphens a=
nd underscores.  But no spaces.  These characters could be in any order.
> The replacement value on a match is the same as what was found except fo=
r double {{ at the beginning and double }} at the end.  Same values betwee=
n the brackets as what was matched on.

Sounds like a job for regular expressions.

regression=3D# select regexp_replace('abc{foo1}def{goo_bug}a', '{([-_a-zA-=
Z0-9]*)}', '{{\1}}', 'g');
       regexp_replace       =

----------------------------
 abc{{foo1}}def{{goo_bug}}a
(1 row)

See
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/functions-matching.html#FUNCTIONS-=
POSIX-REGEXP

			regards, tom lane