The following example returns all rows that contain at least one numerical digit in PostgreSQL.

Example

Suppose we have a table called Products with the following data in its ProductName column:

SELECT ProductName 
FROM Products;

Result:

           productname           
---------------------------------
 Left handed screwdriver
 Right handed screwdriver
 Long Weight (blue)
 Long Weight (green)
 Straw Dog Box
 Bottomless Coffee Mugs (4 Pack)
 Smash 2000 Sledge Hammer
 Chainsaw (3 spare fingers)

This column contains character data, but some rows contain numbers within that character data (even though they’re not stored as a numeric type).

We can use the following query to return just those rows that contain numbers represented by numerical digits:

SELECT ProductName 
FROM Products
WHERE ProductName ~ '[0-9]+';

Result:

           productname           
---------------------------------
 Bottomless Coffee Mugs (4 Pack)
 Smash 2000 Sledge Hammer
 Chainsaw (3 spare fingers)

As expected, only those rows that contain numbers are returned.

In PostgreSQL, ~ is a case-sensitive operator for matching the given regular expression. For case-insensitive matches, use ~*.

You can use !~ to return all rows that don’t match the regular expression (and !~* for case-insensitive matches).