PHP RegEx string Replace

Question

I've recently written a javascript RegExp to cleanse my data at the front end, I now need to do exactly the same for my PHP back end but not having worked in PHP for a while I'm having trouble. Below is the javascript RegExp, can someone please help me convert this to PHP?

var illegalChars = /[\(\)\<\>\,\;\:\.\~\@\#\$\!\%\^\&\*\'\?\(\)\+\=\{\}\`\\\/\"\[\]]/gi;  
var siteSuggest = $(this).val().toUpperCase().split(' ').join('').replace(new RegExp(illegalChars), "");

So, in summary, I want to remove all of the illegal characters globally, remove spaces & capitalize the variable as the variable will be used to create a database or table in sql.

I think you do not have to escape every character and you have () two times in your expression. — Felix Kling
– Felix Kling, Commented Jun 2, 2010 at 16:08

ircmaxell · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-02 16:14:21Z

10

Honestly, I think you'd be better off specifying good characters rather than trying to find all bad characters (after all, there's plenty of non-ASCII characters you forgot about). I'd do something like:

$regex = '#[^a-z0-9_]#i';
$val = preg_replace($regex, '', $val);
$val = strtoupper($val);

This regex will have allowable characters as all alpha, numerics and _. If there's more you want, just add them to the character class. There's no need to split on a space, since the regex will match spaces (The ^ at the start of the character class is a negation)...

You can adjust your JS like this:

var illegalChars = /[^a-z0-9_]/gi;
var siteSuggest = $(this).val().replace(new RegExp(illegalChars), '').toUpperCase();

edited Jun 2, 2010 at 16:14

answered Jun 2, 2010 at 16:04

ircmaxell

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4 Comments

Sylver Over a year ago

This. Also, replace with a space instead of nothing, or the result could look messy.

ircmaxell Over a year ago

@Matt \W (or the negation of \w) will be identical to the character class I used in an English locale. If you're using a non-english locale, it can include other characters (which may or may not be allowable or desirable). I also spelled it out, so that it's easy to see how to add additional characters. But if those are the only ones that you want (And you're only ever going to use an English locale), you can just replace the entire character class with \W

Matt G Over a year ago

@ircmaxell Thank you,your solution looks good but it doesn't seem to replace the spaces which is a requirement.

Matt G Over a year ago

@ircmaxell....sorry, you're quite correct....thank you so much for your assistance, works like a charm!

mmattax · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-02 16:07:03Z

0


$illegal_chars = array(' ', ';', '~', '@', ...);
strtoupper(str_replace($illegal_chars, '', $value));

answered Jun 2, 2010 at 16:07

mmattax

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