How to replace only the first repeated value in a string in MySQL

For this, you can use REGEXP_REPLACE(). Let’s say our string is −

This is my first MySQL query. This is the first tutorial. I am learning for the first time.

We need to replace only the 1st occurrence of a specific word, let’s say “first”. The output should be −

This is my second MySQL query. This is the first tutorial. I am learning for the first time.

Let us create a table −

mysql> create table demo26
−> (
−> value text
−> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (2.04 sec)

Insert some records into the table with the help of insert command −

mysql> insert into demo26 values('This is my first MySQL query. This is the first tutorial. I am learning for the first time.');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)

Display records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from demo26;

This will produce the following output −

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| value                                                                                       |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| This is my first MySQL query. This is the first tutorial. I am learning for the first time. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to replace only 1st occurrence −

mysql> update demo26
−> set value = REGEXP_REPLACE(value, 'first', 'second', 1, 1 ) ;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.19 sec)
Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0

Display records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from demo26;

This will produce the following output −

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| value                                                                                        |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| This is my second MySQL query. This is the first tutorial. I am learning for the first time. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)