Simple ereg help

[ollie.mitch]

Hi,

I need two ereg expressions in my PHP code. One of them needs to check
that a string only contains letters, and the other needs to check that
the string only contains letters and commas (only one comma at each
time).

I thought that the code for only containing letters would be:

eregi("^([a-z])", $keywords);

But this only appears to be checking the first character.

I also have no idea how to do the one that also allows commas (though
not for lack of trying - believe me!)
So, basically, I want one expression that only lets in letters:
ie. hyasdlhlasdhl but not fhdilfd7800asdads;'

and one expression that only lets in letters and commas (one at a
time):
ie. hasiaks,asdas,adsads but not hdasl,,ahodsa,ads

Thanks alot.

[Rik]

ol*********@gmail.com wrote:

Hi,

I need two ereg expressions in my PHP code. One of them needs to check
that a string only contains letters, and the other needs to check that
the string only contains letters and commas (only one comma at each
time).

I thought that the code for only containing letters would be:

eregi("^([a-z])", $keywords);

Use the preg-variant, it's faster.

preg_match('/^[a-z]+$/i',$text);

and one expression that only lets in letters and commas (one at a
time):
ie. hasiaks,asdas,adsads but not hdasl,,ahodsa,ads

preg_match('/^[a-z]+(,[a-z]+)*?$/i',$text(;

Grtz,

--
Rik Wasmus

[friglob]

ol*********@gmail.com wrote:

Hi,

I need two ereg expressions in my PHP code. One of them needs to check
that a string only contains letters, and the other needs to check that
the string only contains letters and commas (only one comma at each
time).

I thought that the code for only containing letters would be:

eregi("^([a-z])", $keywords);

But this only appears to be checking the first character.

I also have no idea how to do the one that also allows commas (though
not for lack of trying - believe me!)
So, basically, I want one expression that only lets in letters:
ie. hyasdlhlasdhl but not fhdilfd7800asdads;'

eregi("/^[a-z]*$/",$keywords);

* null or more
+ one or more

and one expression that only lets in letters and commas (one at a
time):
ie. hasiaks,asdas,adsads but not hdasl,,ahodsa,ads

eregi("[a-z]+,{1}",$keywords);

Thanks alot.

[John Dunlop]

ol*********@gmail.com:

I need two ereg expressions in my PHP code. One of them needs to check
that a string only contains letters,

'letters' means A-Z?

(untested)

preg_match('/\A[a-z]+\z/i',$subject)

Meaning: match, starting at the beginning and finishing at the end,
one or more letters, case insensitive.

and the other needs to check that the string only contains
letters and commas (only one comma at each time).

(untested)

preg_match('/\A(,(?!,)|[a-z]*)+\z/i',$subject)

Meaning: match, one or more times, a comma that is not followed by
another comma or match zero or more letters.

I thought that the code for only containing letters would be:

eregi("^([a-z])", $keywords);

But this only appears to be checking the first character.

Yeah, you haven't quantified the character class, e.g., /^[a-z]+/, or
anchored the pattern to the end of the subject, e.g., /^[a-z]+$/.

--
Jock

[Pedro Graca]

ol*********@gmail.com wrote:

So, basically, I want one expression that only lets in letters:
ie. hyasdlhlasdhl but not fhdilfd7800asdads;'

Would you consider using preg_* instead of ereg?
Is "ñ" a letter? Is "" a string containing only letters?
Assuming 'yes' to both questions, try

if (preg_match('/^[[:alpha:]]*$/', $variable)) {
echo 'All letters.';
} else {
echo 'Not all letters.';
}

and one expression that only lets in letters and commas (one at a
time):
ie. hasiaks,asdas,adsads but not hdasl,,ahodsa,ads

Can the string start or end with a (single) comma?
Assuming 'no', try

if (preg_match('/^[[:alpha:]]+(?:,[[:alpha:]]+)?$/', $variable)) {
echo 'Match';
} else {
echo 'No match.';
}

--
File not found: (R)esume, (R)etry, (R)erun, (R)eturn, (R)eboot