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Aug 18th, 2009

Simple PHP Regex Question!

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Hi! I have a question that probably has a really simple answer

. I have a regex that validates names:

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
elseif (!preg_match('#^[a-z0-9\' -]{1,35}$#i',$lastname
)) { include('includes/error.php'); }
elseif (!preg_match('#^[a-z0-9\' -]{1,35}$#i',$lastname
)) { include('includes/error.php'); }

Only if the name I enter has an apostrophe, it gives me my error message. Can someone please help me modify this regex so that it will allow a name like "O'Sullivan" or "Smith-Jacobs" to be entered? Thanks a ton!

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jeffc418

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Junior Poster in Training

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Aug 18th, 2009

Re: Simple PHP Regex Question!

Strange, I tested it and it works fine for me. O'Reilly matches, Smith matches, Smith-Jacobs matches. The only thing that doesn't match is stuff like @#$%@#

ShawnCplus

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Code Monkey

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Aug 18th, 2009

Re: Simple PHP Regex Question!

Thanks for the reply. I've tried it on two browsers now and can't get "O'Sullivan" to validate, while "Smith-Jacobs" does just fine!

Here's what I'm using:

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<form action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="text">
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
 
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
   $text = $_POST['text'];
   if (!preg_match('#^[a-z0-9\' -]{1,35}$#i',$text
   )) { echo "fail"; }
   else { echo "success"; }
}
?>
<form action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="text">
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
   $text = $_POST['text'];
   if (!preg_match('#^[a-z0-9\' -]{1,35}$#i',$text
   )) { echo "fail"; }
   else { echo "success"; }
}
?>

Please help

. Much thanks!

jeffc418

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Aug 18th, 2009

Re: Simple PHP Regex Question!

The place to start debugging is by echoing the variable to see if it is what you think it is. You may have magicquotes turned on and O'Reilly is actually O\'Reilly

ShawnCplus

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Code Monkey

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Aug 18th, 2009

Re: Simple PHP Regex Question!

Thank you! And if it's echoing with an escaped apostrophe, how can I go about stopping that for validation? I made a work-around:

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<form action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="text">
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
 
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
   $text = $_POST['text'];
   $text = str_replace("\\","",$text);
   if (!preg_match('#^[a-z0-9\' -]{1,35}$#i',$text
   )) { echo "fail"; }
   else { echo "success"; }
}
?>
<form action="" method="post">
<input type="text" name="text">
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
   $text = $_POST['text'];
   $text = str_replace("\\","",$text);
   if (!preg_match('#^[a-z0-9\' -]{1,35}$#i',$text
   )) { echo "fail"; }
   else { echo "success"; }
}
?>

But that one line would be a significant modification to a large-portion of code. Is there an easy way to go about this? Thanks again!

jeffc418

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Aug 18th, 2009

Re: Simple PHP Regex Question!

Well you could turn magic quotes off http://php.net/magicquotes or you can use the stripslashes function

ShawnCplus

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Code Monkey

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Aug 19th, 2009

Re: Simple PHP Regex Question!

yes you can use stripslashes function, its good one.

BzzBee

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