Weird regex warning...

[yoursurrogategod]

Hi.

 

I have this bit of code:

 

 elseif(!preg_match("^[A-Z]'?[- a-zA-Z]( [a-zA-Z])*$", $_POST['lastNameForm']))

 

Now, when I run it, I get this error:

Warning: preg_match(): No ending delimiter '^' found in C:\xampp\htdocs\user_personal_info.php on line 21

 

Warning: preg_match(): No ending delimiter '^' found in C:\xampp\htdocs\user_personal_info.php on line 30

 

Why am I getting this error? I want to check whether the user correctly entered only letters (an apostrophe is permissible as well) for first/lastname.

[requinix]

Unlike in POSIX (ereg* functions), PCRE (preg*) regexes need delimiters around the expression, mostly to separate it from any flags (case-insensitivity and such).

 

Often you can simply add a character at the front and back (making sure to escape it if it's used in the expression) with / and # being the most common.

/^[A-Z]'?[- a-zA-Z]( [a-zA-Z])*$/

By the way your expression seems a bit too loose: it'll accept names like A' and A-.

[ragax]

You also don't need to capture the last part of the match.

A starting point to modify the regex would be

elseif( ! preg_match("~^[A-Z]'?[- a-zA-Z](?: [a-zA-Z])*$~", $_POST['lastNameForm']) )

but as requinix said, the match criteria are way loose.