ereg replace numbers and spaces

how to format a phone number to leave only numbers and spaces

[Robert Poole]

Hey campers.

Let's say I wish to take an input field which is a phone number, and strip out everything that is not a number or a space. For instance...

[phone] would become 01234 567980 (not 01234567890).

I just don't know how to configure the POSIX part of the ereg_replace statement. I've tried about a bazillion approaches but have come up empty.

Should be a quite simple one for you big-brains out there!

Cheers

Roberto

[dreamcatcher]

You could use str_replace [php.net].

$phone = str_replace(array('(',')',array(),$phone);

dc

[rocknbil]

$phone = preg_replace('/[^\d\s]+/','',$phone);

\d = digit
\s = space
^ not operator, when the first character inside a character class
[] character class
+ one or more

Summary: replace one or more instances of anything not a digit or space in the string "$phone" with an empty string.

[Robert Poole]

Like it guys!

Thanks for your speedy and effecient responses, and an extra thanks to rocknbil for the explanation to go with!