matching pattern for names

[ivory_kitten]

i want to validate data in form fields for firstName and lastName, how do i make a function to check the pattern when it includes letters, hyphens, spaces and apostrophes (') characters, i think that's all that would be in a person's name?

i have started with this but can't seem to get it to work with the hyphen!

function isLetters($element) {
  return !preg_match ("/[^A-z]/", $element);
}

i also need to do one for phone numbers to make sure 10 digits are shown and that ( ) or - are not counted as one of the ten but are allowed in the field.

i just can't seem to get my head around how this works!!!

please help me!

[Kudose]

function isLetters($input){
  if(eregi("^[-A-Z\x20\x27]+$", $input)) return true; else return false;
}

function isPhone($input){
  $replace = array("(", ")", "-", ".");
  $input = str_replace($replace, "", $input);
  if(eregi("^[0-9]{10}$", $input)) return true; else return false;
}

[ivory_kitten]

thanks heaps, that works!

does the hyphen have to be the first one for it to work?

[Kudose]

No, but you have to escape it elsewhere.

[ivory_kitten]

ok thanks for that 🙂