validate numeric string

[Anon]

Hi there,

I have a form and ome of the fields requires you to enter only numbers, and you also can use whitespaces or dashes,
after user submitts the form, the validation process should check whether in that line user typed in some characters other then numbers, whitespaces, hyphens

so the question is how do i check if the string contains anything else then numbers, whitespaces, hyphens?

any help is greatly appreciated

[Anon]

use regular expressions, yours would look something like this.

if(preg_match("/^{[0-9]*$/",$string))} {
echo "all numeric";
} else {
echo "not all numeric";
}

[alexei999]

this script works fine for numbers only, but what about whitespaces an hyphens?

[Anon]

Add them to the regexp:

if(preg_match("/^[0-9 \r\n\t-]*$/",$string)) {
echo "valid";
} else {
echo "not valid";
}

The hyphen has to be on the end, or the regexp interpreter will think it's indicating a range (like 0-9).

Since this is preg_match, you can get away with a regexp of "/^\d\s-]*$/".

Or you can do without regexps entirely and just go for

if(strspn($string,"- \r\n\t0123456789")==strlen($string)) {
echo "valid.";
} else {
echo "not valid.";
}

which may or may not be faster.

[Anon]

Blatant typo:
"/^[\d\s-]*$/"

[alexei999]

THANKS A LOT !!!!