Regular Expression

[jmaccs64]

I am horrible at Regular Expressions, I have been reading the tutorials, but maybe I read too much...

 

I simply need to match alphabet

 

Last Names A-He

 

This is what I have so far...

'^[a-h]'

 

Any Help?

 

Thanks!

[.josh]

if (preg_match('~^([a-g]|h([a-e]))~i',$name)) {
  // matched
}

[Psycho]

if (preg_match('~^([a-g]|h([a-e]))~i',$name)) {
  // matched
}

 

Here is a breakdown of the pattern Crayon Violent supplied:

 

~^([a-g]|h([a-e]))~i

 

~ = delimiter

 

^ = match must start at the beginning of string

 

[a-g] = letter must be 'a' through 'g' (because of the ^ the match has to be at the beginning of the string)

 

| = OR

 

h([a-e]) = letter must be an 'h' followed by 'a' through 'e' (because of the ^ the match has to be at the beginning of the string)

 

~ = delimiter

 

i = matching will be case insensitive

[salathe]

For what it's worth, the parentheses around [a-e] are entirely superfluous and there is no real need for the other pair to be capturing anything.