preg_match again !!

[Motivated]

I'm trying to build a function that looks for:

1. One character in field.
2. A maximum of 20 characters
3. Illegal characters.

Now the problem I have is that the 2 preg_match's that I'm using dont allow illegal characters. So the message returned isn't correct. I want to be able to return a message using 1 of the above, I dont want a message saying "please fill in your First Name" if in fact illegal characters have been used.

Heres what I have compliments of forum users which were correct based on the questions I asked at the time.

        /* make sure field is filled in */ 
        if(!preg_match("/\\w{1}/i", $name))
        {
                $feedback .= "Please fill in your First name";
        
        }

        /* make sure field is not over filled */
        elseif(!preg_match("/^\\w{1,20}$/", $name))
        {
                $feedback .= "Maximum of 20 characters for your First name";
               
        } 

Thanks for any help.

[beetle]

Use this for your first match

        if( preg_match( "/^\S*$/", $name ) )
        {
                $feedback .= "Please fill in your First name";
        
        }

[Motivated]

You were close.

Heres the answer I came up with and I'm not saying its perfect by any means.

        /* make sure field is filled in */ 
        if(!preg_match("/\S{1}/i", $name))
        {
                $feedback .= "Please fill in your First name";
               
               
        
        }


        /* make sure field is not over filled */
        elseif(!preg_match("/^\S{1,20}$/", $name))
        {
                $feedback .= "Maximum of 20 characters for your First name";
             
        }


 /* Contains all legal characters */
        elseif(preg_match("/\W{1}/i", $name))
        {
                $feedback .= "Please remove the illegal characters from your First name";
                
	}

[Motivated]

beetle any chance you can tell me where to put the returns in this function ???

[beetle]

Sure, if I follow correctly...

function whatever( $name )
{
    /* make sure field is filled in */ 
    if ( preg_match( "/^\\s*$/i", $name ) )
    {
        $feedback .= "Please fill in your First name";
        return false;
    }


    /* make sure field is not over filled */
    elseif ( strlen( $name ) > 20 )
    {
        $feedback .= "Maximum of 20 characters for your First name";
        return false;
    }

    /* Contains all legal characters */
    elseif ( preg_match( "/\\W/i", $name ) )
    {
        $feedback .= "Please remove the illegal characters from your First name";
        return false;
    }
    return true;
} 

Note that in a regex \W{1} is identical to \W. In otherwords, in absence of a quantifier, a quantity of 1 is assumed for the character/group/atom

[Motivated]

Thankyou