Check String for Chars

[darkhappy]

How can I check $var for characters 0 - 9 and a -z (and what ohter normal charactes should I look for?)?

 

 

I am processing a value from a CSV file if I run the check if ($var!='') on some of the fields it returns TRUE even though the CSV field is empty, so I need to check the $var to make sure it contains data. Please let me know if this question does not make sense so I can re-phrase or give more info.

 

 

 

Thank you,

dhappy

[Orio]

Best solution for you would be using ctype_alnum(). It's more efficient than using a regular expression, and it does the job.

 

 

The regex way:

 

<?php

if(preg_match("/^[a-z0-9]*$/i", $str)) 
{
   //$str is valid
}

?>

 

 

Orio.

[darkhappy]

great - thanks so much.

[darkhappy]

Best solution for you would be using ctype_alnum(). It's more efficient than using a regular expression, and it does the job.

 

 

The regex way:

 

<?php

if(preg_match("/^[a-z0-9]*$/i", $str)) 
{
   //$str is valid
}

?>

 

 

Orio.

 

I have tried both ways and empty fields are still evaluating to true. What am I doing wrong?

 

 

Here is my code:

 

	<?php
foreach($checkarr1 as $v4) {
		if(ctype_alnum($v4)) {
			echo "'".$v4."'-";
		}
}
?>

 

 

$checkarr1 is an array created from a row in a CSV file, some values are null and I only want to echo $v4 for valid fields. I put '' around the var so I can see the blanks when it outputs.

 

 

 

thanks,

dhappy

[sasa]

<?php

if(preg_match("/^[a-z0-9]+$/i", $str)) 
{
   //$str is valid
}

?>

 

[Orio]

Missed your comment about the empty fields. Here's the ctype_alnum() fix. sasa's solution would, of course, also work.

 

<?php
foreach($checkarr1 as $v4)
{
if(!empty($v4) && ctype_alnum($v4))
	echo "'".$v4."'-";
}
?>

 

 

Orio.