Unknown modifier in this short piece of code...

[lukatchikm]

Hello. I have been exploring data validation with PHP. I am trying to format two items, a phone number and a fax number.
When a user submits a phone or fax number, control will test if the number is valid or not.

For example, if a user enters a phone number of 5555555, control will output an error message, prompting the user to enter the phone
number in the format of 555-5555.

And when a user does this and phone number is validated, control will test the next item, which is the fax number, in the same manner.

When I test a number, code outputs the incorrect format error message to my screen, along with the PHP error..
According to my compilation, I have an unknown modifier " - " within this little block of code...

---

if ($phone)
{
$phone = trim($phone);

	 // Patterns for phone number
	 $_first = "([-0-9])";
	 $_last = "([-0-9])";

	// Apply the validity check on the phone number field
	     if( !preg_match($_first."-".$_last,$phone) )
	     {
	      $msg = ("<font face='Arial' size='+1' color='red'>Your sign up has failed!</font><br>
       	      <font face='Arial' color='#4D50A3' size='+1'>Your phone number information is formatted incorrectly!<br><font color='black'>Enter your phone number in 			the form of ###-####</font><br><br>
            Click your browser 'Back' button<br><br>
              or<br><br>
              Click <a href='add_profile.htm'>HERE</a> to re-complete your registration.");
             }

---

I strongly believe that the problem lies within the $first and $last variable declarations, and possibly within the preg_match line...For some reason, it's rejecting the - (dash) that should properly format the phone number...
If you guys have any suggestions, I'd be very thankful!!!

Mike

[planetsim]

try this for the preg_match

"/[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}/i"

[lukatchikm]

I gave that a shot, and my error message is now gone...

BUT...

Despite my phone number being formatted correctly, code still wants to jump to the "incorrect format" error message in my code....Really, if the phone number is valid, it should continue to check the remaining fields...Instead, it is just defaulting to that error message....Any ideas?

---

if ($phone)
{
$phone = trim($phone);

	 // Patterns for phone number
	 $_first = "(/[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}/i)";

	// Apply the validity check on the phone number field
	     if( !preg_match($_first,$phone) )
	     {
	      $msg = ("<font face='Arial' size='+1' color='red'>Your sign up has failed!</font><br>
       	      <font face='Arial' color='#4D50A3' size='+1'>Your phone number information is formatted incorrectly!<br><font color='black'>Enter your phone number in 			the form of ###-####</font><br><br>
            Click your browser 'Back' button<br><br>
              or<br><br>
              Click <a href='add_profile.htm'>HERE</a> to re-complete your registration.");
             }

---

Thanks, Mike

[planetsim]

 $_first = "(/[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}/i)"; 

No need for the ( )

try it like this

$_first = "/[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}/i";