regex , ereg() Problems???

[dkirkdrei]

I am having a problem verifying characters in a variable, I am trying
to create a conditional statement based on whether or not the first two
characters of a variable contain "E9". The variable will always be
either a 6 or a 7 digit, alpha-numeric string begining with "E". I have
tried the following ereg() statement and it picks up everything because
it begins with "E". I cannot seem to find any examples for matching
characters in a specific location within a string except for the
begining or the end. I am sure there is a simple solution. Any ideas??

(ereg("^[E9]", $enumber))

[Rik]

dk*******@yahoo.com wrote:

I am having a problem verifying characters in a variable, I am trying
to create a conditional statement based on whether or not the first
two characters of a variable contain "E9". The variable will always be
either a 6 or a 7 digit, alpha-numeric string begining with "E". I
have tried the following ereg() statement and it picks up everything
because it begins with "E". I cannot seem to find any examples for
matching characters in a specific location within a string except for
the begining or the end. I am sure there is a simple solution. Any
ideas??

(ereg("^[E9]", $enumber))

This would mean: Match if the first character if it's in the block between
[], i.e. everything starting with 'E' _or_ '9' will match.
Do not use [] if you're looking for an exact string.

Starting with E9:
preg_match('/^E9/',$number);

Case insensitive (either E or e):
preg_match('/^E9/i',$number);
--
Rik Wasmus

[dkirkdrei]

Rik wrote:

dk*******@yahoo.com wrote:

I am having a problem verifying characters in a variable, I am trying
to create a conditional statement based on whether or not the first
two characters of a variable contain "E9". The variable will always be
either a 6 or a 7 digit, alpha-numeric string begining with "E". I
have tried the following ereg() statement and it picks up everything
because it begins with "E". I cannot seem to find any examples for
matching characters in a specific location within a string except for
the begining or the end. I am sure there is a simple solution. Any
ideas??

(ereg("^[E9]", $enumber))

This would mean: Match if the first character if it's in the block between
[], i.e. everything starting with 'E' _or_ '9' will match.
Do not use [] if you're looking for an exact string.

Starting with E9:
preg_match('/^E9/',$number);

Case insensitive (either E or e):
preg_match('/^E9/i',$number);
--
Rik Wasmus

Thanks Rik, I had tried preg_match() but I was trying to use the square
brackets and it was not working. I will give your suggestions a try.
Thanks again for the response...