Extract the first, longest pattern that matches a regular expression.
You could add a parameter or write a similar function to get the shortest match instead (by starting with e = s and then incrementing e, instead of starting with e = LENGTH(string) and decrementing).
CREATE FUNCTION REGEXP_EXTRACT(string TEXT, exp TEXT)
-- Extract the first longest string that matches the regular expression
-- If the string is 'ABCD', check all strings and see what matches: 'ABCD', 'ABC', 'AB', 'A', 'BCD', 'BC', 'B', 'CD', 'C', 'D'
-- It's not smart enough to handle things like (A)|(BCD) correctly in that it will return the whole string, not just the matching token.
RETURNS TEXT
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE s INT DEFAULT 1;
DECLARE e INT;
DECLARE adjustStart TINYINT DEFAULT 1;
DECLARE adjustEnd TINYINT DEFAULT 1;
-- Because REGEXP matches anywhere in the string, and we only want the part that matches, adjust the expression to add '^' and '$'
-- Of course, if those are already there, don't add them, but change the method of extraction accordingly.
IF LEFT(exp, 1) = '^' THEN
SET adjustStart = 0;
ELSE
SET exp = CONCAT('^', exp);
END IF;
IF RIGHT(exp, 1) = '$' THEN
SET adjustEnd = 0;
ELSE
SET exp = CONCAT(exp, '$');
END IF;
-- Loop through the string, moving the end pointer back towards the start pointer, then advance the start pointer and repeat
-- Bail out of the loops early if the original expression started with '^' or ended with '$', since that means the pointers can't move
WHILE (s <= LENGTH(string)) DO
SET e = LENGTH(string);
WHILE (e >= 1) DO
IF SUBSTRING(string, s, e) REGEXP exp THEN
RETURN SUBSTRING(string, s, e);
END IF;
IF adjustEnd THEN
SET e = e - 1;
ELSE
SET e = s - 1; -- ugh, such a hack to end it early
END IF;
END WHILE;
IF adjustStart THEN
SET s = s + 1;
ELSE
SET s = LENGTH(string) + 1; -- ugh, such a hack to end it early
END IF;
END WHILE;
RETURN NULL;
END