Regular help expression is confused!

is this ok, can it be improved

[Matthew1980]

Hi there fellow WebmasterWorld'ers,

private function WhiteSpaceChecker((string)$input)

if(preg_match("/^(\s)+$/i", $input)){
return($this->Whitespace = true);
}
else{
return($this->Whitespace = false);
}
}

Simple enough function, can this be made any better at all?

Cheers,
MRb

[enigma1]

I believe you want to set the member Whitespace var and return it's value, if so a simplified version could be:

function WhiteSpaceChecker($input) {
$this->Whitespace = strpos($input, ' ') === false?false:true;
return $this->Whitespace;
}

[rocknbil]

This will check ONLY for one or more white spaces. The entire string begins and ends with white space. If that's your intent, OK.

if(preg_match("/^(\s)+$/i", $input)){

The ()'s are only needed if there are groupings in the match or in a preg_replace to save the value inside the () in a temporary variable. Not much difference between yours and this one, will work the same. There is no case sensitivity for white space. :-) May want the m and s though.

if(preg_match("/^\s+$/sm", $input)){

If you want the existence of white space in any string, the PHP functions will suffice, but for record's sake,

if(preg_match("/\s+/sm", $input)){

[Matthew1980]

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice. The idea is for me to check that the user hasnt just used the space bar and then pressed enter. My version works ok, but as i am not good with regex, so i thought i would consult the experts here.

Cheers,
MRb