[RESOLVED] Checking html for errors

wescooldude3

Ok ive got a form and ive made it where you have to enter in data if the text boxe's
before you can submit the form to a database. BUT i need some help i need to make it where in certain field the users can only enter in letters in some text boxes but in other textboxes they can only enter in numbers. i found this code

 
  <?php
$strings = array('AbCd1zyZ9', 'foo!#$bar');
foreach ($strings as $testcase) {
    if (ctype_alnum($testcase)) {
        echo "The string $testcase consists of all letters or digits.\n";
    } else {
        echo "The string $testcase does not consist of all letters or digits.\n";
    }
}
?>

so lets say i got a text box called $_POST[phonenumber] and i want to make sure only numbers were intered into the box. What would i change the code to?😕 😕 😕

NogDog

Here are all the ctype_*() functions: http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.ctype.php .

If none of them fits a particular need, then you'll probably need to use a regular expression funciton.

Jack_McSlay

if (preg_match ('@[0-9() -]+@',$_POST['phonenumber']) ){
 echo 'Phone number accepted.';
}
else {
 echo 'Phone number invalid.';
}

NogDog

Jack McSlay wrote:

if (preg_match ('@[0-9() -]+@',$_POST['phonenumber']) ){
 echo 'Phone number accepted.';
}
else {
 echo 'Phone number invalid.';
}

Note that your code will return true for "abc123xyz", because you have not anchored the pattern to the start and end of the string.

In any case, since the stated requirement was "i want to make sure only numbers were intered into the box", it would be simpler and faster to just use [man]ctype_digit/man.

djheru

if(preg_match('/^[\(]?(\d{0,3})[\)]?[\s]?[\-]?(\d{3})[\s]?[\-]?(\d{4})[\s]?[x]?(\d*)$/', $phonetext)) //I use this for US phone number checking.

NogDog

djheru wrote:

if(preg_match('/^[\(]?(\d{0,3})[\)]?[\s]?[\-]?(\d{3})[\s]?[\-]?(\d{4})[\s]?[x]?(\d*)$/', $phonetext)) //I use this for US phone number checking.

And from the Department of Redundancy Department, I'll reiterate that the original poster asked to validate that only numbers were entered. That's not to say that the above might not be useful in many cases (as long as you want to only accept US-style numbers), but it does not fulfill the stated requirement.

djheru

Yes, but the common definition of a phone number includes such strings as "248-555-1212" I felt that since the stated reqirement had already been fufilled, that perhaps an expanded example might be useful, if not for the poster, than for others who come across this post later.

Since the example the poster gave was $POST[phonenumber] (should be $POST['phonenumber'], btw) I thought that it might be a good time to mention the flexibility and power of regular expressions.

NogDog

I prefer to store phone numbers a pure numeric strings without any spaces/special characters. This gives you a uniform data format that can be easily searched/sorted. In fact, I prefer 3 separate fields: area code, number, and extension (with extension being optional) and have them also as 3 separate fields on the form. This takes all responsibility away from the user in having to type a format I am willing to recognize (and guessing whether or not to include the "1-" long distance prefix), while making sure I get the right digits in the right fields.

wescooldude3

thanks all i got what he needed