How can PHP beginners effectively utilize regular expressions in SQL queries for database searches?

Regular expressions can be used in SQL queries to perform more advanced and flexible searches in databases. PHP beginners can utilize regular expressions by incorporating them into their SQL queries using the `REGEXP` operator. This allows for pattern matching and searching for specific strings or patterns within database fields.

$search_term = "example";
$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name REGEXP '" . $search_term . "'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        // Process the retrieved data
    }
} else {
    echo "No results found.";
}