preg_match for a name

PHP
1

eregi used to be so easy, but I’m still struggling to convert to preg_match. Just don’t seem to get it. :confused:

On a contact form, I’m trying to make sure that the Name field only contains letters, a hyphen (-), apostrophes (') and spaces. This is what I have, but it is letting all sorts of characters through, such as [.

Any suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong?

This is what I have at this point:

/^[A-z\\-\\s']{1,60}$/

EDIT: OK, it seems to work OK if I use this:

/^[A-Za-z\\-\\s']{1,60}$/

But I was under the impression that A-z was a valid shorthand for A-Za-z, but it seems to have been causing a problem here. Is there something else I’m missing?

2 
~^[a-z\\-'\\s]{1,60}$~i

You’ll have to use the i modifier to make it case-insensitive. :slight_smile:

3

Thanks Anthony. That works nicely too. (A while back, Remon suggested I start and end with the ~ as well, but I forgot. :blush: )

While you’re here, I saw this as part of a preg_match for an email address, but I can’t work out what it means. Does it mean anything to you? And does it have any use?

"/^N\\/A$/i"
4

Sorry Ralph, that means nothing to me. It actually looks like it just matches “n/a” or “N/A”.

5

O dear, it does indeed. I now realize I wrote that myself for a special situation where the user could enter an email address or indicate N/A. I must be getting old. :frowning:

Thanks again for your help. :slight_smile: