Thread: Ereg and eregi

Hi,
I read a few articles on ereg and eregi, but im having trouble understanding this. I saw a few examples such as

^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$

and

([[:digit:]]|[~`!@#$%^&*()_=+{}|\:;"/?,]|[|]|-)+

and so on..can someone help me break this down?

As you probably know from your articles, ereg and eregi are functions that search a string for a defined variable or group of variables Once found, then you create code to do something.

For instance. Lets say you wanted to check your e-mail to make sure that it had the standard format of blahblah@whatever.com
So you have to create a block of what is exceptable to meet that standard and test for it.
If(! ereg('[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\@[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]+', $email))
{
Do what ever here;
}

So the code above says
IF the sting in $email does not have letters or numbers plus and @ symbol followed by a . and then followed by a set of letters or numbers followed by .com - DO what ever here

So- in nut shell, it allows you to test a string and make sure it conforms to your own needed criteria.

The difference between ereg() and eregi(). ereg() does a case sensitive search and eregi() is a case insensitive.

Andy

Just to add a little more.. both use a format called regex to check a string for certain characters

if you are looking for more of a breakdown of what does what, I did a google search and this might help

http://ysomeya.hp.infoseek.co.jp/eng-quick_regex.html

ok let me see if I got this.

If(! ereg('[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\@[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]+', $email))

ereg means that the search is case sensitive (' starts the function [ starts the first set of characters A-Za-z0-9_- is allowing only characters A-Za-z0-9_- ] ends the first set +\@ means that the @whatever is next +/. means after @whatever they must have a . then [A-Za-z0-9_-] is com, so what we have so far is blahblah24@whatever.com, correct? then the +', $email means that this function is for the $email variable only? then of course the closing '))

Thnx
Matt

Bravo! Couldn't have done better myself.

Andy

Ok well it seems to have worked thanks a lot!
Matt