[RESOLVED] eregi problem

kcgame

Hi all,

I would like to limit the user input to (1 to 20 letters and numbers) AND ONLY allow space...but just can't get the following eregi to work properly..can someone help me?

if (eregi("^([:alnum:]+[:space:]){1,20}$",$_POST[name2])) {
			$e=TRUE;			
		} else {
			$message[]="Please enter a legal name.";
			$e=FALSE;
		}

Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.

Weedpacket

Why not use [man]strlen[/man] to test the length of the string? Then the regular expression could be a lot simpler and the whole test could go a lot faster (but as it happens, the "+" should be a "|", and the "[:space:]" should be a " ").

kcgame

Thanks, Weedpacket.

I am trying out the strlen and preg_match (since it will be faster 🙂 ) but would require some advices

if (strlen($_POST['name2'])>=1 && strlen($_POST['name2'])<=20 && preg_match("[a-zA-Z0-9]",$_POST['name2']))

How can i improve the above codes so that it will accept only:

Minimum 1 to a Max. of 20 alphanumbers.
Allow space in between.

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks you.

Weedpacket

The pattern for preg_match to accept a space character is

/ /

. "Allow space"? How many space characters is that? 1? Fifty? Can the space be at the start of the string or the end? Can it include tabs and newlines? Can I have more than one space? Could you be specific enough to be able tell a computer what you want?

And why are you limiting the name to twenty characters? Mr. Thirugnanasampanthamoorthy won't like that.

kcgame

Weedpacket wrote:
The pattern for preg_match to accept a space character is
/ /
. "Allow space"? How many space characters is that? 1? Fifty? Can the space be at the start of the string or the end? Can it include tabs and newlines? Can I have more than one space? Could you be specific enough to be able tell a computer what you want?

To be more precise, I allow space ONLY in between of words and the whole string of words should within 1 to 20 alpha-numbers. My textfield is a single line input and should not be detecting and tabs or newlines (Please correct me if i'm wrong..)
Some examples of accepting Nicknames:

1
Power
Power of Moon
Moon Power
Power 1 and 2

Weedpacket wrote:
And why are you limiting the name to twenty characters? Mr. Thirugnanasampanthamoorthy won't like that.

Actually this is not exactly names..but rather, the user's Nickname to be used in the site..
Sorry for the unclear description of my problem. I hope I have clarified all or most parts.
I appreciate any help / advice again. Thank you.

Weedpacket

Okay, so:

1 or more letters or digits
Followed by zero or more:
1. space
2. followed by 1 or more letters or digits

You still haven't said whether multiple spaces count as "a space", but I'll assume not; so that "This name" is allowed and "This name" is not.

(Please correct me if i'm wrong..)

You are; if you're talking about user input you could get anything. Someone could stick an audio file in that field if they felt like it.

Well, that description above is pretty straightforward.

A letter or digit: [a-z0-9]
One or more letters or digits[a-z0-9]+
A space followed by one or more letters or digits: [a-z0-9]+
Zero or more (space followed by one or more letters or digits): b[/b]
One or more letters or digits, followed by zero or more (space followed by one or more letters or digits): [a-z0-9]+( [a-z0-9]+)
PCRE pattern delimiters for preg_match() and mark case-insensitive:

/[a-z0-9]+( [a-z0-9]+)*/i

kcgame

Thanks, Weedpacket 🙂