preg_match issues

[ukfusion]

Hi is there a specific way to check for preg_match.

Only reason i ask is im having trouble even matching basics.

I have a validation script with a function like this(for example...simpl ified for testing)

function AlphaNumeric($value){
if(preg_match("/^a-z/", $value)){
	return true;
}
}

then i call it from a sepperate file such as

if(!$validation->AlphaNumeric($value){
give error message...
}

But i always get an error...even when my value is just abc.

what am i doing wrong here...have got a feeling im gonna feel stupid afterwards but please someone tell me what's going wrong.

[Dormilich]

it’s your regular expression. you check, whether your string starts with the string "a-z". you certainly mean, whether your string starts with a letter, which is done through a character class.

public function alphabetic($value)
{
    return (bool) preg_match("#^[[:alpha:]]#", $value);
    // or
//  return (bool) preg_match("#^[a-z]#i", $value);
}

[ukfusion]

I thought [a-z] specified the range of letters between a and z? along with 0-9 etc or cant you use preg_match that way?

[Dormilich]

I thought [a-z] specified the range of letters between a and z?

that’s correct, but you wrote

/^a-z/