How does MySQL support searching with regular expressions?

MySQL supports the functionality of conducting searches using regular expressions. Regular expression searches can be performed using the REGEXP or RLIKE operators. Here is an example of conducting a search using regular expressions:

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name REGEXP 'pattern';

In the example above, table_name refers to the name of the table, column_name refers to the column to be searched, and pattern is the regular expression pattern to be matched.

Common metacharacters in regular expressions include:

1. ^: Matches the beginning of a string.
2. $: match the end position of a string
3. Match any character except for line breaks.
4. * : Match the preceding character zero or more times.
5. + : match the preceding character one or more times
6. Match the preceding character zero or one time.
7. []: Match any character inside the brackets.
8. ( ) : capture the matched content

MySQL’s regular expression functionality is quite basic and does not support all the features of regular expressions. You can refer to the official MySQL documentation to learn more about the usage and syntax of regular expressions.