Recognizing patterns in a sequence of rows has been a capability that was widely desired, but not possible with SQL until now. There were many workarounds, but these were difficult to write, hard to understand, and inefficient to execute. With Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1), you can use the MATCH_RECOGNIZE clause to perform pattern matching in SQL to do the following:

1. Logically partition and order the data that is used in the MATCH_RECOGNIZE clause with its PARTITION BY and ORDER BY clauses.
2. Define patterns of rows to seek using the PATTERN clause of the MATCH_RECOGNIZE clause. These patterns use regular expressions syntax, a powerful and expressive feature, applied to the pattern variables you define.
3. Specify the logical conditions required to map a row to a row pattern variable in the DEFINE clause.
4. Define output measures, which are expressions usable in the MEASURES clause of the SQL query.
5. Control the output (summary vs. detailed) from the pattern matching process

Duration: 30 minutes

This content is intended for the following job role(s): PL/SQL Developer, Data Warehouse Developer, Business Analyst, Application Developer

Release Date: 08-MAY-2014

Created by: Keith Laker