Is this good?

[miles_rich]

<?php

$name_first = strtolower($name_first = $_REQUEST['name_first']);
$name_last = strtolower($name_last = $_REQUEST['name_last']);

echo $reg_check = var_check($name_first, "name");
echo $reg_check = var_check($name_last, "name");


function var_check($var, $type)
{

	# Resets the pattern string and the return string to nothing.
	$pattern = "";
	$return_string = "";

	# Clears white spaces.
	trim($var);

	# Set up of patterns.
	if ($type == "name"){ $pattern = "^[a-z]{1,10}$"; }
	if ($type == "phone"){ $pattern = "^[0-9]{6}$"; }


	if (!ereg ("$pattern", $var))
	{
		$return_string = "The entry <b>".$var."</b> is not valid, please check.";
	}
return $return_string;
}
?>

Is this a good way of coding a regular expression?

[PHPThorsten]

Dear,
it looks pretty nice.

But you should use preg_match() instead of ereg, it's faster.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php