Is it Possible to Enforce Data Checking in MySQL using Regular expression
Actually, we can can set regular expression within check constraints in MySQL. Eg.,:
create table fk
(
empid int not null unique,
age int check(age between 18 and 60),
email varchar(20) default 'N/A',
secondary_email varchar(20) check(secondary_email RLIKE'^[a-zA-Z]@[a-zA-Z0-9]\.[a-z,A-Z]{2,4}'),
deptid int check(deptid in(10,20,30))
)
;
This INSERT query will work: insert into fk values(1,19,'[email protected]','[email protected]', 30);
This INSERT query will not work: insert into fk values(2,19,'[email protected]','[email protected]', 30);
Yes, you can. MySQL supports regex (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/regexp.html) and for data validation you should use a trigger since MySQL doesn't support CHECK constraint (you can always move to PostgreSQL as an alternative:). NB! Be aware that even though MySQL does have CHECK constraint construct, unfortunately MySQL (so far 5.6) does not validate data against check constraints. According to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/create-table.html: "The CHECK clause is parsed but ignored by all storage engines."
You can add a check constraint for a column phone:
CREATE TABLE data (
phone varchar(100)
);
DELIMITER $$
CREATE TRIGGER trig_phone_check BEFORE INSERT ON data
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF (NEW.phone REGEXP '^(\\+?[0-9]{1,4}-)?[0-9]{3,10}$' ) = 0 THEN
SIGNAL SQLSTATE '12345'
SET MESSAGE_TEXT = 'Wroooong!!!';
END IF;
END$$
DELIMITER ;
INSERT INTO data VALUES ('+64-221221442'); -- should be OK
INSERT INTO data VALUES ('+64-22122 WRONG 1442'); -- will fail with the error: #1644 - Wroooong!!!
However you should not rely merely on MySQL (data layer in your case) for data validation. The data should be validated on all levels of your app.
MySQL 8.0.16 (2019-04-25) and MariaDB 10.2.1 (2016-04-18) now not only parse CHECK constraint but also enforces it.
MySQL: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/create-table-check-constraints.html
MariaDB: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/constraint/