[SOLVED] phone number validation for "not required" field

[carley_bell]

Hi,

I am trying to do a server side form validation for a phone number that is not a required field, but if they choose to enter the field I want it to be a validated phone number. I have tried about 50 different versions switching the variables any way I new  how but I can't seem to get it to work. I know it is something simple but I can't get it to work.

// make sure phone number is valid
if (!$_POST['field_6']) {
} else (!preg_match('/^.?[0-9]{3}.?.?[0-9]{3}.?[0-9]{4}$/i', $_POST['field_6'])){
die('Invalid phone number. Please use your browsers back button to go back to the form ');
}

Any suggestions?

[nuttycoder]

have you tried:

 

if (isset($_POST['field_6'])) 
{
(!preg_match('/^.?[0-9]{3}.?.?[0-9]{3}.?[0-9]{4}$/i', $_POST['field_6'])){
die('Invalid phone number. Please use your browsers back button to go back to the form ');
}

[.josh]

(assuming we are talking about american 10 digit area code+phone number numbers...)

 

My suggestion is that instead of trying to write some way complex regex that handles variations of some arbitrary format, you just cut to the chase and see if there's 10 digits.  That way users can use any format they want.

 

$number = preg_replace('~[^0-9]~','',$number);
if (strlen($number) == 10) {
  // number is good, do something
} else {
  // number is bad, do something
}

[carley_bell]

I tried this one:

if (isset($_POST['field_6'])) 
{
(!preg_match('/^.?[0-9]{3}.?.?[0-9]{3}.?[0-9]{4}$/i', $_POST['field_6'])){
die('Invalid phone number. Please use your browsers back button to go back to the form ');
}

but I am getting this error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '{' in D:\Host\processor.php on line 19

 

to make it easier I can figure out preg_match(...  stuff, I just need to figure out how to make it ignore the validation if nothing is entered into the input, but validate it if they do enter a phone number.

 

thanks

[nuttycoder]

oops my bad

 

<?php
if (isset($_POST['field_6']))
{
if(!preg_match('/^.?[0-9]{3}.?.?[0-9]{3}.?[0-9]{4}$/i', $_POST['field_6']))
{
die('Invalid phone number. Please use your browsers back button to go back to the form ');
}
}
?>

[carley_bell]

It is displaying the error "Invalid phone number. Please use your browsers back button to go back to the form" when nothing is entered instead of ignoring it and moving on to the next validation

[CroNiX]

if (isset($_POST['field_6']) && !empty($_POST['field_6']))

??

 

[carley_bell]

that did the trick...I don't understand how, but it worked

[CroNiX]

Well, you didn't want to run the validation when there is no value, so thats what that does.