Regular Expression PHP not validating correctly

Question

I am trying to write a regex for my code, the regex is used to validate the phone number format, the first two digits should be either 01,04,05,06,07,08,09 followed by a dash (-) and followed by 6 digits only.

I used the following regex: 0[1456789]{1}-[0-9]{6}. I used the following site to make sure my regex is working correctly: RegExr and I'm testing it on the following 01-123456

However, when I run my code, my function returns as if the number is invalid, which is not.

Here is my code:

function validHomePhone () {
    global $home_phone;

    $home_phone_regex = "0[1456789]{1}-[0-9]{6}";
    return preg_match($home_phone_regex, $home_phone);
}

Why am I getting such results?

I would also like to recommend a simplified version of your regex /0[14-9]-\d{6}/. — Joe
– Joe, Commented May 10, 2013 at 13:37

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-10 13:36:07Z

7

You need to enclose the expression in a delimiter, like this:

/0[1456789]{1}-[0-9]{6}/

You should also add the beginning- and end-of-string anchors, otherwise your expression will match anything that contains a valid number:

/^0[1456789]{1}-[0-9]{6}$/

And while we 're at it, the {1} quantifier is redundant:

/^0[1456789]-[0-9]{6}$/

Finally, [1456789] can be reduced to [14-9]. Personally I would not do this because IMHO it reduces readability for no real gain, but it's something that might be useful somewhere else.

answered May 10, 2013 at 13:36

Jon

439k85 gold badges756 silver badges820 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

beiller Over a year ago

As an aside your function should take a parameter $home_phone, instead of a global $home_phone function validHomePhone($home_phone) and erase the global line.

hakuna matata Over a year ago

I tried first with just / at the beginning and at the end, but didn't try with the ^ and $, I though since it worked without them, there wouldn't be a need for them Thanks Jon

Jon Over a year ago

@aizen92: Also pay attention to beiller's comment above, he's 200% right.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Regular Expression PHP not validating correctly

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related