Regular Expressions

[shlomi_toledo]

Hi,
I am trying to check validy of an input (one word or more with spaces or - between the words)
A word is more than one character
The following code doesn't work...

<?php

$firstname = "Any String";

$first_name_valid=ereg("[A-Za-z]{1,}[ ]{*}[-A-Za-z]{*}",  $firstname);
if ($first_name_valid)
{
    echo "True";
}
else
{
    echo "Wrong";
}

?>

Thanks for any help

[LordShryku]

if(strlen($string) > 1) {
   if(eregi("[^a-z |-]", $string)) {
      echo "Invalid Characters found";
   }
   else {
      echo "Valid";
   }
}
else {
   echo "Must be at least 2 characters";
}

[shlomi_toledo]

Thanks but your solution isn't exactly what i am looking for.

The first character can't be a space, the space or - can come only between words.

Also, can you tell me what is wrong with my regular expression (for learning purposes)?

Thanks
S

[mrhappiness]

$valid = strlen($string) > 1 and preg_match('%^[a-z]+[a-z -]*$%i', $string);

give this a try

if the string must not end with space or comma simply copy&paste the [a-z]+ just before the $