>
> SELECT
> SUBSTRING(description FROM '(.*), \\d{1,3},') AS vname,
> SUBSTRING(description FROM '.*, (\\d{1,3}),') AS age,
> SUBSTRING(description FROM '\\d{1,3}, of (.*?),? was charged') AS
> address, SUBSTRING(description FROM ' was charged ([^ ]+)') AS dow,
> SUBSTRING(description FROM ' was charged [^ ]+ with (.+)') AS charge
> FROM police_log;
Aha! The old double-slash escape. Thank you very much.
--Berend Tober