Using Regex to extract table names from a file containing SQL queries

Question

I've a text file containing large number of queries. I want to get all the distinct tables used in the entire file in all the queries. The table name can come after a 'from' or 'join'. How can i extract them by doing a regex match. Can anyone suggest a regular expression to get the matches?

Answer 1

Solutions that can help you.

1. Extract table names with alias from an SQL statement with Regex

Regular expression

/(from|join|into)\s+([`]\w+.*[`] *\w+|(\[)\w+.*(\]) *\w+|\w*\.*\w+ *\w+)/g

2. Extract table names from an SQL statement with Regex

Regular expression

/(from|join|into)\s+([`]\w+.+\w+\s*[`]|(\[)\w+.+\w+\s*(\])|\w+\s*\.+\s*\w*|\w+\b)/g

Test string

-------------------------------------------------------
    select * into [dbo].[table_temp] 
    from [dbo].[table_a] a inner join dbo.table_b b ...
    join table_c c on ...
    from dbo.table_d d ...
    from `dbo`.`table_e` e ...
    from table_f f ...
-------------------------------------------------------

Generated Code for C#

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public static class QueryExtension
    {
        public static List<string> GetTables(this string query)
        {
            List<string> tables = new List<string>();
            string pattern = @"(from|join|into)\s+([`]\w+.+\w+\s*[`]|(\[)\w+.+\w+\s*(\])|\w+\s*\.+\s*\w*|\w+\b)";            
            
            foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(query, pattern))
            {                
                string name = m.Groups[2].Value;                                
                tables.Add(name);
            }

            return tables;
        }
        public static string Join(this IEnumerable<string> values, string separator) {
            return string.Join(separator, values);
        }
    }

How to use it.

string input = @"select * into [dbo].[table_temp] 
from [dbo].[table_a] a inner join dbo.table_b b ...
join table_c c on ...
from dbo.table_d d ...
from `dbo`.`table_e` e ...
from table_f f ...";

Console.WriteLine(input.GetTables().Join("\n"));

Output

[dbo].[table_temp]
[dbo].[table_a]
dbo.table_b
table_c
dbo.table_d
`dbo`.`table_e`
table_f

Extract column names from an SQL statement with Regex

Regular expression

/(\w*\.*\w+|`\w*.*\w`|(\[)\w*.*(\]))+(,|\s+,|\s+FROM|\s+from)/g

Test string

-------------------------------------------------------
SELECT  
    [a].[column_1],  
    `b`.`column_2`,  
    c.column_3,  
    col4 as column_4,  
    col5 as `column_5`,   
    col6 as [column_6],
    column_7,
    a.col8 column_8,    
    (select max(column_x) from table_d where column_y in ('1','2','3')) as column_9    
from table_a a
inner join table_b b on ...
inner join table_c c on ...
-------------------------------------------------------

Generated code for C#

public static class QueryExtension
    {        
        public static List<string> GetColumns(this string query)
        {
            List<string> columns = new List<string>();
            string pattern = @"(\w*\.*\w+|`\w*.*\w`|(\[)\w*.*(\]))+(,|\s+,|\s+FROM|\s+from)";

            foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(query, pattern))
            {
                string name = m.Groups[1].Value;
                columns.Add(name);
            }

            return columns;
        }
        public static string Join(this IEnumerable<string> values, string separator) {
            return string.Join(separator, values);
        }
    }

How to use it

string input1 = @"SELECT  
    [a].[column_1],  
    `b`.`column_2`,  
    c.column_3,  
    col4 as column_4,  
    col5 as `column_5`,   
    col6 as [column_6],
    column_7,
    a.col8 column_8,    
    (select max(column_x) from table_d where column_y in ('1','2','3')) as column_9    
from table_a a
inner join table_b b on ...
inner join table_c c on ...
";

 Console.WriteLine(input1.GetColumns().Join("\n"));

Output

[a].[column_1]
`b`.`column_2`
c.column_3
column_4
`column_5`
[column_6]
column_7
column_8
column_9

References

Regular Expression Language - Quick Reference
Simplified Regular Expressions
Try regular expressions online

Answer 2

can try this but it doesnt work for all the types of query,

  public void Main()
    {
        // TODO: Add your code here

        string Line = string.Empty;

        using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(@"D:\ssis\queryfile.txt"))//reading the filename
        {

            var text = string.Empty;

            do
            {
                //     MessageBox.Show(Line);
                text = Line = sr.ReadToEnd();// storing it in a variable by reading till end

                MessageBox.Show(Line);



            } while ((Line = sr.ReadLine()) != null);



            var text1 = text.Replace("[", string.Empty).Replace("]", string.Empty);//replacing brackets with empty space

            MessageBox.Show(text1);



            Regex r = new Regex(@"(?<=from|join)\s+(?<table>\S+)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Compiled);//regex for extracting the tablename after from and join

            Match m = r.Match(text1);//creating match object

            MessageBox.Show(m.Groups[1].Value);

            var v = string.Empty;



            while (m.Success)
            {

                v = m.Groups[0].Value;

                m = m.NextMatch();


                StreamWriter wr = new StreamWriter(@"D:\ssis\writefile.txt", true);// writing the match to the file

                var text2 = v.Replace(".", " ,"); // replace the . with , seperated values


                wr.WriteLine(text2);

                sr.Close();
                wr.Close();

            }
        }
    }

Answer 3

I'd use:

r = new Regex("(from|join)\s+(?<table>\S+)", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

once you have the Match object "m", you'll have the table name with

m.Groups["table"].Value

example:

string line = @"select * from tb_name join tb_name2 ON a=b WHERE x=y";
Regex r = new Regex(@"(from|join)\s+(?<table>\S+)",
         RegexOptions.IgnoreCase|RegexOptions.Compiled);

Match m = r.Match(line);
while (m.Success) {
   Console.WriteLine (m.Groups["table"].Value);
   m = m.NextMatch();
}

it will print: tb_table tb_table2

Answer 4

It depends on structure of your file. Try to use this:

(?<=from|join)(\s+\w+\b)

Also turn on options Multiline if your not split your file in array or smth else with singleline string members. Also try to turn on IgnorCase option.

Answer 5

(from|join)\s(\w+)

Answer 6

Something like this maybe:

/(from|join)\s+(\w*\.)*(?<tablename>\w+)/

It won't match escaped table names though, and you need to make the regex evaluation case-insensitive.