How to modify this regex expression to accept hyphens?

Question

I have the following Regex (in PHP) that I am using.

'/^[a-zA-Z0-9&\'\s]+$/'

It currently accepts alpha-numerics only. I need to modify it to accept hyphens (i.e. the character '-' without the quotes obviously) as well.

So it will accept strings like 'bart-simpson' OR 'bond-007' etc.

Can anyone explain how to modiy the pattern?

a regex like this '/^[-a-zA-Z0-9&\'\s]+$/' , will make it possible to create strings like: "----" or "-something"... is this the desired behaviour? what kind of strings do you expect? do you have limitations or everything within those characters is allowed?? — acm
– acm, Commented May 13, 2010 at 10:43
@acmatos: and the existing regex matchs "&&&' &", so what is your point? — SilentGhost
– SilentGhost, Commented May 13, 2010 at 10:44
it currently accepts ampersand, single quote and whitespace characters apart from alphanumerics. — Amarghosh
– Amarghosh, Commented May 13, 2010 at 10:46
I don't have a point, just asking if that's the desired behaviour for the regex... The examples look like usernames to me so, I wouldn't want a user with ampersands, quotes, whitespaces or - but that's me. :-) — acm
– acm, Commented May 13, 2010 at 10:51

SilentGhost · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-13 10:35:37Z

1

Just add it to the character class:

'/^[a-zA-Z0-9&\'\s-]+$/'

answered May 13, 2010 at 10:35

SilentGhost

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2 Comments

Hold on, I suspect I did not reload my page during testing. I'll try again

Yup, I made a silly mistake, I edited the wrong regex in the file. Problem sorted.

Kenan Banks · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-13 10:36:09Z

0

Just add a hyphen at the end of the character group within brackets. This ought to work:

'/^[a-zA-Z0-9&\'\s-]+$/'

answered May 13, 2010 at 10:36

Kenan Banks

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Marcelo Cantos · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-13 10:36:57Z

0

I add the hyphen at the front, to make it fairly obvious that it isn't part of a range:

'/^[-a-zA-Z0-9&\'\s]+$/'

answered May 13, 2010 at 10:36

Marcelo Cantos

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