'*' (match zero or more repetitions) : Wild Card « Regular Expressions « Oracle PL / SQL Oracle PL / SQL Regular Expressions Wild Card '*' (match zero or more repetitions)
SQL> --'*' (match zero or more repetitions):
SQL>
SQL> SELECT REGEXP_SUBSTR('Yababa dababa do' ,'a.*a' ) FROM dual;
REGEXP_SUBST
------------
ababa dababa
SQL>
Related examples in the same category 1. '.' matches anything 2. REGEXP_INSTR(description,'F.') 3. REGEXP_INSTR(description,'e.e'): Find a letter and then whatever until there was another of the same letter 4. REGEXP_INSTR(description,'i.i'): 'i' followed by any one character, followed by another 'i' 5. REGEXP_SUBSTR('Yababa dababa do','a.a') 6. REGEXP_SUBSTR('abbbb','ab+') 7. REGEXP_SUBSTR('a','ab+') 8. REGEXP_SUBSTR('abbbb','ab*') (2) 9. To see the difference between '*' and '+' 10. '?': match exactly zero or one repetition 11. '+': match one or more repetitions 12. REGEXP_INSTR(description, 'e.+e'): An 'e' followed by any number of other characters and then another 'e' 13. REGEXP_SUBSTR(description,'e.*e') 14. Use the non-greedy '?'