[SOLVED] eregi syntax explanation

[ballhogjoni]

Hi everyone, I came across this code to check whether an email address is valid or not. Can someone explain the syntax. I looked on php.net, but it doesn't explain what all the characters mean. Thx.

 

if(eregi("^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+@[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.[a-zA-Z\-\.]", $email)) {

[ballhogjoni]

I figured some of it out on my own. With eregi you don't need to escape anything because the [] do that. I don't know what the ^ does though.

[effigy]

You need $ at the end. Here's the rest:

 

NODE                    EXPLANATION

----------------------------------------------------------------------

  ^                        the beginning of the string

----------------------------------------------------------------------

  [a-zA-Z0-9_]+            any character of: 'a' to 'z', 'A' to 'Z',

                          '0' to '9', '_' (1 or more times (matching

                          the most amount possible))

----------------------------------------------------------------------

  @                        '@'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

  [a-zA-Z0-9\-]+          any character of: 'a' to 'z', 'A' to 'Z',

                          '0' to '9', '\-' (1 or more times

                          (matching the most amount possible))

----------------------------------------------------------------------

  \.                      '.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

  [a-zA-Z\-\.]            any character of: 'a' to 'z', 'A' to 'Z',

                          '\-', '\.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[ballhogjoni]

perfect thx