22-25 April 2026
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SQLBits 2015

Monster Text Manipulation: Regular Expressions for the DBA

DBAs are always asked to perform tasks against dozens of objects and the requests never come in the format we need them. Learn how to make regular expressions parse through the requests for you to get your day back and become a star in your office.
Have you ever needed to refactor dozens of stored procedures or create lots of user accounts from a list given to you by a business unit?    If so then you’ve probably spent too much time manually manipulating text.  Regular Expressions (regex, for short) is one of the best tools a DBA can have.  This powerful text manipulation tool can be used in any number of scripting languages, and can even be leveraged inside of SSMS. The best part? Regex is brilliantly simple--despite what you may have heard to the contrary.  In this session you'll learn the basics of regex and the differences you'll encounter when using it in SSMS rather than a scripting tool. Along the way you'll see some really cool tricks; things you'll want to use all of the time once you're aware of them.  Next we'll move into Powershell. Here regex gets the full treatment and will help you with powerful and incredible tasks, manipulating hundreds of objects at a time.