Regex with custom character sets

[chrisprse]

Hello

 

I'm currently using CodeIgniter and I want to extend the validation library.

 

I am using the following callback function in my forms:

 

function alpha_numeric($str) {
return ( ! preg_match("/^([a-z0-9])+$/i", $str)) ? FALSE : TRUE;
}

 

This checks whether or not the field contains alphanumeric characters and returns TRUE or FALSE.

 

I need to create a new function that will ONLY ALLOW the following characters:

 

@£$¥èéùìòÇØøÅåΔ_ΦΓΛΩΠΨΣΘΞÆæßÉ !"#¤%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?¡ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÄÖÑܧ¿abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzäöñüà^}{\[~]|€

 

If the string contains any other character it will return FALSE!

 

I am aware that the metacharacters need to be escaped which leaves me with the following:

 

@£\$¥èéùìòÇØøÅåΔ_ΦΓΛΩΠΨΣΘΞÆæßÉ !"#¤%&'\(\)\*\+,-\./0123456789:;<=>\?¡ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÄÖÑܧ¿abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzäöñüà\^}{\\\[~]\|€

 

Now, this is where I get stuck! Is anyone able to help me create a new function based on the above "alpha_numeric" function to help me achieve my goal?

 

If this new function returns TRUE I would then like to run it through another check which adds +1 to a variable called $counter for every occurrence of any the following characters:

 

^}{\[~]|€

 

I am so stuck on this it's unbelievable and any help will be GREATLY appreciated!

 

Thanks very much in advance.

 

Regards

Chris

 

P.S. I am also after another two functions based on the above "alpha_numeric" function.

 

The first: Strings must be between 3 & 16 characters in length and can only comprise alphanumeric characters or the hyphen (-) character. They cannot begin or end with a hyphen.

 

The second: Strings must be up to 11 characters starting with a letter and consisting of letters, numbers, spaces, full stops and hyphens.

 

I have exactly $10.68 USD in my PayPal account and I'll happily "donate" this to anyone that can help. I know there are probably some kind people out there willing to do this for free but I'll happily make a PayPal payment to the first person to reply. It's my way of buying you a bottle of wine via the web!

 

Thanks

Chris

[Daniel0]

I've attached a file containing three functions. For some reason SMF didn't like the unicode symbols, so I couldn't post it here.

 

You can donate your money to PHP Freaks if you wish.

 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[chrisprse]

Wow!!!!

 

Thank you SO MUCH!

 

That is great, thank you!

 

I am just about to make a donation to PHP Freaks! I will post confirmation of the donation shortly!

 

Thanks again

Chris :)

[Daniel0]

You could purchase a 1-month supporter subscription using your profile:

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;area=subscriptions

 

That's $10.

[chrisprse]

Thank you Daniel - I certainly will.

 

Once the first function returns TRUE I would then like to run another check which adds +1 to a variable called $counter for every occurrence of any the following characters:

 

^}{\[~]|€

 

So say if I had the following string:

 

Hello! My name is [Chris]. My currency is the euro (€).

 

The $counter variable would be: 3

 

Could this be achieve using Regex or would I be better off looking at string functions?

 

Regards

Chris

[chrisprse]

This is what I came up with but I can't help but think there must be a more effective way?

 

<?php
$string = "Hello! My name is [Chris]. My currency is the euro (€).";

$counter = 0;

$characters = array("^", "}", "{", "\\", "[", "~", "]", "|", "€");

foreach($characters as $character) {
$counter = $counter + substr_count($string, $character);
}

echo $counter;
?>

 

Regards

Chris

[Daniel0]

Hmm... you could probably do this:

 

function countContains($string, $chars)
{
preg_match_all('#[' . preg_quote($chars, '#') . ']#', $string, $matches);
print_r($matches);
}

[Daniel0]

Uhm... that print_r() shouldn't have been there... should have been:

 

function countContains($string, $chars)
{
preg_match_all('#[' . preg_quote($chars, '#') . ']#', $string, $matches);
return count($matches[0]);
}

 

Sorry.

[chrisprse]

Hi there

 

I'm having trouble with the following function:

 

if(preg_match('#[^' . preg_quote('@£$¥èéùìòÇØøÅåΔ_ΦΓΛΩΠΨΣΘΞÆæßÉ !"#¤%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?¡ÄÖÑܧ¿äöñüà^}{\[~]|€', '#') . 'A-Za-z0-9]#i', $message)) {
			echo "Good!";
		}
		else {
			echo "Bad!";
		}

 

Basically, I am taking input from a textarea ($message) which can contain only the following characters:

 

@£$¥èéùìòÇØøÅåΔ_ΦΓΛΩΠΨΣΘΞÆæßÉ !"#¤%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?¡ÄÖÑܧ¿äöñüà^}{\[~]|€A-Za-z0-9

 

If the text contains a combination of ONLY these characters it echo's "Good!".

 

If it contains ANY OTHER characters such as © it would echo "Bad!"

 

I can't figure out where I am going wrong - is anyone able to help?

 

Much appreciated - Chris

[chrisprse]

I think the problem is because there are wierd characters in there.

 

I had to use mb_strlen to get the string length of the message.

 

Is there anyway to correct the above to work with these characters.

 

I've seen mb_ereg but not sure how to implement it - is anyone able to shed some light?

 

Cheers

Chris

[rea|and]

Uhm... that print_r() shouldn't have been there... should have been:

 

function countContains($string, $chars)
{
preg_match_all('#[' . preg_quote($chars, '#') . ']#', $string, $matches);
return count($matches[0]);
}

 

Sorry.

Hello, it's just a side issue, but you could rewrite it in this way:

 

function countContains($string, $chars){
return preg_match_all('#[' . preg_quote($chars, '#') . ']#', $string, $matches);
}

 

 

[xylex]

You need to turn on the UTF8 modifier in your pattern.

 

if(preg_match('#[^' . preg_quote('@£$¥èéùìòÇØøÅåΔ_ΦΓΛΩΠΨΣΘΞÆæßÉ !"#¤%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?¡ÄÖÑܧ¿äöñüà^}{\[~]|€', '#') . 'A-Za-z0-9]#iu', $message)) {
			echo "Good!";
		}
		else {
			echo "Bad!";
		}

 

 

Note the "u" at #iu', $message)