Checking a string for actual letters?

[galvin]

Say I have a string (stored in a variable we'll call $mystring) that could be something like this...

 

"cat / dog / monkey / / / / / / / /"

 

Or this string could also have no real data in it, in which case it would look like...

 

"/ / / / / / / / / /"

 

QUESTION:  What is the easiest/most efficient way to run a check on that string to see if there are any non-slash characters in it.  In plain english, the check would say, "Are there any letters in this string, or is it only spaces and slashes?"

 

Any ideas?

[spiderwell]

a feel a regular expression expert will answer this, i have a convoluted solution that would use explode() to split string to an array using the slash as the delimiter, then do a ctype_alpha() check on each element of array.

 

 

 

I so need to learn reg exp...

[galvin]

I hear ya.  I started using explode() and then was planning to loop through each one but there HAS to be an easier/more efficient way so I figured I'd run it by the geniuses on this website  

 

I really need to lear reg exp too 

[spiderwell]

yeah there will be one that checks against only ' slash or space' , thats all you will need.

[Pikachu2000]

I'm not great with regex, but this seems to work if there are any characters other that slashes and/or spaces . . .

 

if( preg_match('~[^/\s]~', $string) ) {
   echo "NOT just slashes and/or spaces.";
} else {
   echo 'ONLY slashes and/or spaces';
}