regexp question

[cmose]

does anyone see anything inherently wrong with this regular expression? It's meant to match phone numbers with or without -. (space) or nothing seperating numbers and an optional extension consisting of 4 characters (x or ext. etc.,) and an optional 1-4 character extension. I've tried about a dozen different regular expressions at this point to try and validate a bloody phone number and just want to know if the regexp are wrong or it's something somewhere else ballsing up.
thanks!!!!

preg_match("^([ (])?[1-9]{3}([- ) .])?[0-9]{3}([- .])?[0-9]{4}([- .])?\w{0,4}([- .])?[0-9]{0,4}$", $phone)

well that's funny, the ?w should be ?\w and that's showing up when I edit the post but not once changes are saved. strange.

[bubblenut]

preg_match("^([ \(])?[1-9]{3}([ \-\)\.])?[0-9]{3}([\- \.])?[0-9]{4}([\- \.])?\w{0,4}([\- \.])?[0-9]{0,4}$", $phone)

Try that for size
Bubble
PS VBuilletin strips some of the backslashes out in

 tags , I find [code] tags better for regexs

[cmose]

thanks, gave that a shot but no luck, guess I'll try replacing the space in ([]) with a \s and see where that goes. I swear it's got to be something, I've literally tried almost a dozen different phone number matching regexps (done myself and other's pulled from regexlib.com) and still no love. If the \s doesn't work, I'll post my code to call the regexp once I can ftp into my site (host has f'd things up). this is just drivin me batty.

[cmose]

ok, I'm going to paste my form processing script and my validation include file, this stupid regex is giving me a headache
verify.php

<?php
function verify_email($email) {
	return (preg_match("/^\w[^@\s]*\w@\w([\w\.]*\w)?\.\w{2,}$/", $email));
}

function verify_phone($phone) {
	echo "PHONE IS: ".$phone;
	$phone = trim($phone);		

return (preg_match("^([\s\(])?[1-9]{3}([\-\s\)\.])?[0-9]{3}([\-\s\.])?[0-9]{4}([\-\s\.])?\w{0,4}([\-\s\.])?[0-9]{0,4}$", $phone));
}

function verify_text($text){
	return (preg_match("^([1-zA-Z0-1@.\s]{1,1000})$", $text));
}
?>

send.php

<?
//email handling form for contact form, resume form, and support form
//contact form emails sales contact info
//resume form emails name/email/phone and resume attachment
//support form not created yet, will email image/screnenshot/etc.,
$path="Gnossos Software::Contact Us";
include ("files/header.php");
include ("files/verify.php");

$formtype = stripslashes($_POST['formtype']); 

//for contact form
if ($formtype == "contact"){
	$subject = "SALES, subject: " . $_POST['subject'];
	$to = "[e-mail]";
	//if(!verify_email($_POST['email'])){
	//	echo "bad email";
	//	exit;
	//}
	if(!(verify_phone(stripslashes($_POST['phone'])))){
		echo "bad phone number";
		exit;
	}
}//end contact if

//these are common to all form types
foreach ($_POST AS $key => $value){
	$message .= $key."=".$value."\n";
}

$headers = "From: $_POST['email']\r\n";
$from = stripslashes($_POST['name'])."<".stripslashes($_POST['email']).">";

if(!verify_email($_POST['email'])){
	echo "bad email";
	exit;
}
//end common actions

//this handles both support and resume submission as both involve file attachments
//to handle resume submission form
if(($formtype == "resume") or ($formtype == "support")){
	//to handle resume form
	if($formtype == "resume"){
		$subject = "RESUME, subject: " . $_POST['name'];
		$to = "[e-mail]";		
		echo "TEST\n";
	}
	//to handle support form
	if($formtype == "support"){
		$subject = "SUPPORT: subject: ";
		$to = "[e-mail]";

	if(!verify_phone(stripslashes($_POST['phone']))){
		echo "bad phone number";
		exit;
	}	
}
echo "TO: ".$to."\n";
echo "FORM: ".$formtype."\n";
	$tmp_name=$_FILES['file']['tmp_name'];
    $type = $_FILES['file']['type'];
    $name = $_FILES['file']['name'];
    $size = $_FILES['file']['size'];

    $headers = "From: $_POST['email']";

    if (file_exists($tmp_name)){
        if(is_uploaded_file($tmp_name)){
            $file = fopen($tmp_name, 'rb');
            $data = fread($file, filesize($tmp_name));
            fclose($file);

            $semi_rand = md5(time());
            $mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x";

            $headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" .
                "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" .
                " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\"";

            $message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" .
                 "--{$mime_boundary}\n" .
               "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n" .
               "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" .
               $message . "\n\n";

            $data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));

            $message .= "--{$mime_boundary}--\n" .
                "Content-Type: {$type};\n" .
                " name=\"{$name}'\n" . 
                "Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" .
                " filename=\"{$name}\"\n" .
                "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" .
                $data ."\n\n" .
                "--{$mime_boundary}--\n";
            }//end is uploaded
    }//end file exists
}//end test

//common information to all forms
echo "<div id=\"content\">";
echo "<div id=\"leftcont\">";
if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers)){
	header("Refresh: 3; URL=http://www.gnossos.com/test/testing.php");
	echo "<h4 style=\"text-align:center\">Your message was sent, someone will contact you shortly. <br />\n".
	     "You will be redirected to the home page in 5 seconds...</h4>";
	echo "";
} else {
	header("Refresh: 3; URL=http://www.gnossos.com/test/testing.php");
	echo "<h4 style=\"text-align:center\">Your message failed, please contact the<a 
	href=\"mailto:[e-mail]\"> 
	webmaster</a><br />You will be redirected to the home page in 5 seconds...</h4>";
	echo "";
}

echo "</div><!--end leftcont-->";
include ("files/footer.html");
?>

there has got to be something wrong with the way I am handling this and it's probably dead simple, but I just am not seeing it at all.
thanks much for any insights

[Erkilite]

I found a program called Regex Coach (windows only). It allows you to enter a regex and a string and see exactly how it is getting processed.

you might want to try and track it down, it was very helpful to me.

[mtimdog]

I tried this and it seemed to work...(modified code from regexlib.com to include 3334444[x234]?)

<?
$phones = array('000-000-0000', '333-4444', '(111).222.3333', '222.3333x4433',
 '2223333ext 8899', '1(111).3334444x4');

foreach($phones as $key=>$value){
$match="/^((1\s*[-\/\.]?)?(\((\d{3})\)|(\d{3}))\s*[-\/\.]?\s*)?(\d{3})\s*[-\/\.]?\s*(\d{4})\s*(([xX]|[eE][xX][tT])\.?\s*(\d+))*$/";
$match2="/^([0-9])\?/";
echo preg_match($match, $value) . '<br>';
}
 ?>

[cmose]

erkilite,
thanks, I grabbed that and gave it a whirl,
seems like my regex is chocking here:
"^{([\s(])?[1-9]{3}[\B],} it's only matching the one digit and then failing, I assume this is because of the way I wrote the expression, - I was under the impression that identifying a string of characters could be done like: [1-9]{3}, e.g., [characters]{#of characters}

[cmose]

mtimdog,
thanks alot for putting that together (question on yours, what is the match2 for?).
I really want to understand why the one I put together is wrong, altered it to the following:

^([\s\(])?([1-9]\d{3})?([\-\s\)\.])?([0-9]\d{3})?([\-\s\.])?([0-9]\d{4})?([\-\s\.])?(\w{0,4})?([\-\s\.])?([0-9]{0,4})$

but that still won't work in regex coach.
thanks!

[mtimdog]

I was just using $match2 to get the syntax down for preg_match....I had to modify the js regexp to have /^.....$/ , so I tested it with the $match2 until it wouldn't throw any errors.

[cmose]

mtimdog,
thanks much for your input and that regular expression. I really wanted to get mine working and just figured the bugger out

"^(([\s\(])?(\d{3})([\-\s\)\.])?(\d{3})([\-\s\.])?(\d{4})([\-\s\.])?(\D{0,4})?([\-\s\.])?(\d{0,4})?)$"

that matches a 10 digit number phone number with or without seperators and an optional extension (made up of just characters in case someone wants to refer to ext. as ...um...Lne or something bizarre) and an optional 1-4 digit extension number.
phew, now that that's working, I'll have to make sure that my code is working as well 😉

well, it was dead simple afterall - needed to add a / before beginning anchor and a / after ending anchor.

on a similar vein, could someone recommend a good way to send a user back to edit the data if errors are found? (I'd like to pass errors through the url and have the form page check for those and highlight problem fields, but I want the user's data to still be there to edit).

thanks much!!!

[cmose]

a bump regarding a good way to send the user back to the form with data still there and erro messages for bad data (since this isn't going into a database but just to an email, I can't repopulate the form from the db...). I was hoping I could somehow pass the error's back to the form via a url parameter but I don't want to loose the data that the user has already entered.
thanks!