Coding⏱️ 2 min read📅 2026-06-03

How to Fix: Update a column value, replacing part of a string

Update URLs in MySQL database by replacing part of a string.

Quick Answer: Use the `REPLACE` function with a regular expression to update the URL column.

To update the URL column in your MySQL database, you can use a combination of regular expressions and string replacement. The idea is to identify the part of the URL that needs to be replaced, which in this case appears to be everything before the domain name.

⚠️ Common Causes

  • Using a regular expression to replace the entire domain name, which may result in incorrect URLs.

✅ Best Solutions to Fix It

Method 1: Domain Name Replacement

  1. Step 1: Replace the entire domain name with the new one using a regular expression, like this:
UPDATE your_table SET url = REGEXP_REPLACE(url, 'http://domain1.example/', 'http://domain2.example/')

Method 2: Domain Name Replacement with Wildcard

  1. Step 1: Replace the entire domain name with a wildcard using a regular expression, like this:
UPDATE your_table SET url = REGEXP_REPLACE(url, '^http://(domain1|domain2).example/', 'http://$2.example/otherfolder/')

💡 Conclusion

By using a combination of regular expressions and string replacement, you can update the URL column in your MySQL database to point to the new domain name while keeping the file names intact.

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