regex (not) matching null string

From: "David M(dot) Kaplan" <dmkaplan(at)ucdavis(dot)edu>
To: pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: regex (not) matching null string
Date: 2002-06-19 21:01:16
Message-ID: 3D10F11C.9070606@ucdavis.edu
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I have found that !~ and !~* do not match the null string even when one
would expect them to. I am not sure if this is how it is supposed to
work or if this is an error. If this is how it works, I can't figure
out where it is states in the documentation.

Let me give an example. Suppose we have a table "t" that look as follows:

# SELECT * FROM t;
n | s
---+---
1 | a
2 | b
3 |
4 | d
(4 rows)

Now consider the following query results:

# SELECT * FROM t where s ~* 'a';
n | s
---+---
1 | a
(1 row)

This works as expected (by me).

# SELECT * FROM t where s !~* 'a';
n | s
---+---
2 | b
4 | d
(2 rows)

This is not what I would have expected. Instead, I thought the result
would be:

# SELECT * FROM t where s !~* 'a'; --- This does not happen!!
n | s
---+---
2 | b
3 |
4 | d
(3 rows)

It seems to me that !~* should just be the inverse of ~*, but this does
not seem to be the case.

David

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