PHP: Regular expression problem too much for my small brain

Question

Hi All,

I have been trying to solve a PHP regular expression problem for awhile now but I just can't quite get it done. I need write a regex that will match between 7 and 12 digits (0..9) and there may optionally be either a single hyphen or a single space between adjacent digits. This is what I have so far...

$match1 = preg_match('/^\d[0-9\-\s]{5,10}\d$/', $number);
$match2 = preg_match('/(-\s|\s-|--|\s\s)/', $number);

As you can see I have to use two different checks and it still isn't enough for me as I can input this string: "1-2-3-4-5" and it will still pass because there are a total of 9 characters but it should fail because there are only 5 digits.

Any help on the matter would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

^(?:\d[-\s]?){6,11}\d$

Answer 2

How about:

/^(\d[-\s]?){6,11}\d$/

Answer 3

Try this regular expression:

/^\d(?:[-\s]?\d){6,11}$/

This allows seven to twelve digits that may be separated by a hyphen or a whitespace character.

Answer 4

Try this regex:

\d([-\s]?\d){6,11}