help with setting an error message

[dadamssg]

im creating an update profile script. I'm dealing with their first name right now...if they don't enter anything thats fine, but if they do i want to check it against this regex. the problem is its not checking it against the regex. I can enter Billy#(R& for the first name and it will put that in the db without setting an error. heres what i got to check if its not empty, check against the regex

 

$Fname = clean_data($_POST['firstName']);
if($Fname !=="")
{
  if(!preg_match('/^[a-z]{2,20}$/i',$Fname))
  {
  $messages .= "{$_POST['firstname']} is not a valid name.<br>";
  }
}  

[9three]

You need to echo or print the message