add apostrophe and dash in preg_match

[dadamssg]

i want the user to be able to use apostrophes(') and dashes(-) in this...where would i add those characters? thanks

 

if(!preg_match('/^[a-z0-9]{8,12}$/i',$_POST['username']))

[redarrow]

tell me if it works please.

 

if(!preg_match('/^[\'\-a-z0-9]{8,12}$/i',$_POST['username']))

[dadamssg]

hey thanks, it worked for the dash but not for the apostrophe. i tried this but it didn't help

 

if(!preg_match('/^[\'\-\a-z0-9]{8,12}$/i',$_POST['username']))

[redarrow]

what about this then tell me

 

if(!preg_match('/^[\-\a-z0-9]\'{8,12}$/i',$_POST['username']))

[dadamssg]

nope, any other ideas?

if(!preg_match('/^[\'\a-z0-9]\'{8,12}$/i',$_POST['username']))

[.josh]

if(!preg_match("/^[-'a-z0-9]{8,12}$/i",$_POST['username']))

 

You may need to stripslashes $_POST['username'] before preg_matching though.

 

Also, that pattern does not prevent stuff like this from matching:

a-----bc

a''''''''bc

a-b-c-d-e

------abc--

etc..

[dadamssg]

hey thanks, do you know how to restrict those characters to only being able to appear once? Im trying to account for names like O'hara or something of the sort

[Salkcin]

Well, you could use substr_count() to count how many times a char appears in a text.

 

ex:

$user = $_POST['username']; 
if (!preg_match("/^[-'a-z0-9]{8,12}$/i",$user) || substr_count($user, "'") > 1 || substr_count($user, "-") > 1)
{
echo "Invalid";
}
else
{
echo "Valid";
}