PHP: form validation "Full name"

Question

Right now i have this for full name:

if(empty($_POST['full_name']) || strlen($_POST['full_name']) < 4)
{
$errormessage[] = "ERROR.\n";
}

How can i make a validation for full name, so the entered name should contain space?

So like if person enter:

John Andersson

Its ok, but if he enter:

JohnAndersson

its not ok, error. So you would need a "space" in your fullname.

Answer 1

Like this:

if (strpos(trim($_POST['full_name']), ' ') !== false){
  // user has specified first and last name
}
elseif (strpos(trim($_POST['full_name']), ' ') !== true){
  // user has specified a single name
}

You need to enter the trim function to check for bad names such as:

• Justin Alba[space]
• [space]Justin Alba
• Justin[space]
• [space]Justin

Answer 2

You can do a test like:

$fullName = 'JohnAndersson';

if ( ucfirst(strtolower($fullName)) != ucfirst($fullName) ) {
    echo 'It is not valid';
}

ucfirst(strtolower($fullName)) will convert your string to Johnandersson and it is not equals to JohnAndersson so it should contains a space.

Answer 3

You could possibly have two fields, one for first name and one for surname.

I assume you don't want people with one name to fill in your form so you'd exclude Bono, Eminem, Prince, Sting, Bjork, Enya and a few others.