Age regular expression

I have the code, but it only kinda works.

[ramoneguru]

Ok, using this regualr expression to check to see if an age is between 1-105:

"([1-9][0-9]?)¦([10][1-6])"

Does not work, any suggestions?
--Nick

[BjarneDM]

"([1-9][0-9]?)¦(10[1-6])"

[10] = either 1 or 0 ; not "10"

[Psychopsia]

You can do this with a simple condition:

$age = 50;
if ($age >= 1 && $age <= 105)
{
// Code
}
else
{
// Your age is invalid
}

[ramoneguru]

That's fine, but it blows up with non integer characters.
--Nick

[smells so good]

$age = <non-integer character> * 1;

It's a quick fix.

[ramoneguru]

Cool-ness!
--Nick

[UserFriendly]

A simple way to check that the string only contains digits is as follows:

if (ctype_digit($age)) {
echo 'Age string contains only numbers.';
}

[Psychopsia]

if (!preg_match('#([0-9]+)#i', $str))
{
// Not Number
}

[heisters]

Not that a regex is a good solution for this problem, but...

#([0-9]+)#i

would be better written as

/\d+/

\d is a synonym for [0-9], grouping (parentheses) is unnecessary, and reduces performance. Using Perl Regexp in PHP is generally un-optimal; better to use lower level string functions or integer casting and a regular conditional.

Also, just for readability, it might be better to use real type casting:

$age = (int) $nonIntChar;

instead of

$age = <non-integer character> * 1

But both those points are splitting hairs ;)

[coopster]

Using Perl Regexp in PHP is generally un-optimal; better to use lower level string functions or integer casting and a regular conditional.

I used to think this as well. As a matter of fact, most of the PHP function pages will even state as such. However, in my recent testing with PHP5 I have found PCRE to be faster. Perhaps it is the new engine or otherwise but I just wanted to share my experiences.

[whoisgregg]

Or force an integer from any string with:

$age = intval($_POST['age']);
// OR
$age = (int) $_POST['age'];

Then do the <= && >= tests.

[Filipe]

For future reference: Search Google for "regular expression tool". There are a lot of handy regex builders. A site called reWork has one I particularly like.