ereg_replace help

[slimjim]

OK i have this for a form, but instead of making one for each field of the form, is there a way to cover all inputs on the form ? Otherwise I would have to have this like 8 times repeated, which doesn't make sence to me.

$pattern = "[^a-zA-Z0-9]";
$replacement = "X"; 
$firstname = ereg_replace($pattern,$replacement,$firstname);

What is does is replace any char that isn't a letter or a number in the name field of a submitted form, with a X prior to being inserted into the db.

[kingbear]

Use arrays perhaps?

something like:

$formInput = array();
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value) {
$formInput[$key] = $value;
}

foreach($formInput as $key=>$value) {
$formInput[$key] = ereg_replace($pattern,$replacement,$value);
}

All your form variables with the X replacement are in the formInput array. So for example firstname is $formInput['firstname'];

[slimjim]

SO do i have to add this

$formInput['firstname'];

to this

$formInput = array(); 
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value) { 
$formInput[$key] = $value; 
} 

foreach($formInput as $key=>$value) { 
$formInput[$key] = ereg_replace($pattern,$replacement,$value); 
}

Just a little confused , becuase i left it alone like you have it and it didnt work right, i was able to add different chars other then letters and numbers on all imputs. Still got put into the db.

Here is a short version of my form..

  if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {

$pattern = "[^a-zA-Z0-9]";
$replacement = "X"; 
//$firstname = ereg_replace($pattern,$replacement,$firstname);

$formInput = array(); 
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value) { 
$formInput[$key] = $value; 
} 

foreach($formInput as $key=>$value) { 
$formInput[$key] = ereg_replace($pattern,$replacement,$value); 
}
//Todays date
$today = date("Y-m-d"); 	

	$query="insert into tablename (id, firsname, lastname, mdate) values ('$id', '$firstname', '$lastname', '$today')";

mysql_query($query) or die( "ERROR: " . mysql_error() . "\n");
}
?>
	<form action="formname.php" method="post">
<div align="center">
<table>
<tr><td>
    <p align="right">First Name <input type="text" name="firstname" maxlength=12 size="20" value=""></p>
  </td></tr>
<tr><td>
    <p align="right">Last Name <input type="text" maxlength=15 name="lastname" size="20" value=""></p>
  </td></tr>
  <center>
<tr><td>
    <p align="center"><input type=submit name="submit" value="submit"></p>
  </td></tr>
</table>

[kingbear]

In your query you need to replace the variables with their array counterparts. For example.

$firstname

will be replace with

$formInput["firstname"]

and likewise for the rest of the variables.

[slimjim]

That worked like a charm. But, still one issue i have. Empty spaces. How do I allow empty spaces ?
Right now I allow the below, but would need to allow empty spaces too.

$pattern = "[^a-zA-Z0-9_@-,.]";

[kingbear]

Whitespace in a regular expression is matched by \s (space, tabs, newlines, etc) .... for just a space use [:space:]