JavaScript Regex (string should include only alpha, space, hyphen)

Question

I'm trying to create a regex that will match only when the string has anything but alphas, spaces, and hyphens. In other words, the string can only contain letters, spaces, and hyphens.

gnarf · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-11 20:40:32Z

36

If you are looking for a test for validity:

// from string start to end, only contains '-' "whitespace" or 'a'-'z' 
someString.match(/^[-\sa-zA-Z]+$/)

Or the negation:

// has some invalid character not '-' "whitespace" or 'a'-'z'
someString.match(/[^-\sa-zA-Z]/)

answered Sep 11, 2009 at 20:40

gnarf

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brettkelly · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-11 20:33:23Z

-2

if(someString.match(/[a-z -]+/i){
    // it's valid
}

answered Sep 11, 2009 at 20:33

brettkelly

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3 Comments

brettkelly Over a year ago

"the string can only contain letters, spaces, and hyphens."

Eimantas Over a year ago

change regexp to this: /[^a-z \-]+/i

Ateş Göral Over a year ago

If you don't anchor your expression with ^ and $, this will simply match a substring. The rest of the string can still contain unwanted characters.

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