PHP remove only and only phone numbers from text

Question

This is a sample text/string with a mix of numbers and phone numbers:

oh my god i have 1000 things to do today and i want to finish reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954 book, but hey, I will see you there from 4pm to 8 my cell is 374-7657654 or you can call me at (374)-334-5674 and then i can come from 16:30 thru 19:45 (in european time!)

how do i remove/detect ONLY phone numbers (written in any format, since i can't foresee how a user would write them?

i tried

(\(?+[0-9]{3,15}+[\- ]?+[0-9]?+\)?+)

but it strips away the time or book title/ year etc

What makes a number a phone number? The written in any format makes this almost impossible.. — chris85
– chris85, Commented Feb 20, 2016 at 17:59
@chris85 is right. The written in any format makes this almost impossible.. — Death-is-the-real-truth
– Death-is-the-real-truth, Commented Feb 20, 2016 at 18:01
@chris85 any number greater than 9 (at least in western countries) that can include characters like () - – — Francesco
– Francesco, Commented Feb 20, 2016 at 18:01
In your current example make the last number class not optional. [0-9]+.. — chris85
– chris85, Commented Feb 20, 2016 at 18:04

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:46:09Z

4

Here's the regex:

1?\W*([2-9][0-8][0-9])\W*([2-9][0-9]{2})\W*([0-9]{4})(\se?x?t?(\d*))?

preg_match("1?\W*([2-9][0-8][0-9])\W*([2-9][0-9]{2})\W*([0-9]{4})(\se?x?t?(\d*))?", "", $text);

Where $text is the text you wish to validate.

All credit to indiv, answering this question

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:46

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 20, 2016 at 18:01

IeuanG

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4 Comments

chris85 Over a year ago

Did you just have that regex lying around?

IeuanG Over a year ago

I found the regex on a separate answer, and put it in preg_match.

IeuanG Over a year ago

Let me double check that regex @Francesco

Maytham Fahmi Over a year ago

I was looking for some thing similar vote up from me too, nice work

Jan · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-20 19:00:39Z

0

While you already have an answer, why not come up with something easier:

~([-+()\d]{5,})~
# looks for -+() and digits 
# which need to be there at least 5 consecutive times

See a demo here on regex101.com.

answered Feb 20, 2016 at 19:00

Jan

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