create nickname by email Regular Expression

Question

I have to create a nickname from the email address of the user. For example: mario-rossi79@gmail.com

in this case the nickname that I have to create should contain only alphanumeric characters: mariorossi79

How can I do that?

Please note that `mario-rossi79@gmail.com` and `mario-rossi79@yahoo.com` can be two different persons that would like to use your service. — Martin Thoma, Aug 06 '13 at 08:37
@moose, What about mariorossi79@yahoo.com and mario-rossi79@yahoo.com? — 7stud, Aug 06 '13 at 08:41
Using regexs to validate email addresses or even combining the two in any way is really not the best thing to do. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/201323/using-a-regular-expression-to-validate-an-email-address — Alex, Aug 06 '13 at 09:35

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 08:39

2

Try this:

$email =  'mario-rossi79@gmail.com';
$arr = explode("@", $email);
$result = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9]+/", "", $arr[0]);
echo $result;

answered Aug 06 '13 at 08:39

Ranjan

Does the + do anything in your regex? – 7stud Aug 06 '13 at 09:38
@7stud + is used for one or more occurrence of character. – Ranjan Aug 06 '13 at 10:23
Without the +, your solution would fail, yes? – 7stud Aug 06 '13 at 10:37

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 08:35

0

you can do it in 2 passes. first remove the @domain second remove the none alpha numeric.

$email = "mario-rossi79@gmail.com";
$user = preg_replace("/@.*$/", "", $email);
$nickname = preg_replace("/[^A-Za-z0-9]/", "", $user);

answered Aug 06 '13 at 08:35

DevZer0

Thanks @DevZer0 your code is perfect. This will work with any email right? – Carol Casta Aug 06 '13 at 08:50
potentially yes as long as the email address has a `@` separating. – DevZer0 Aug 06 '13 at 08:51

2 Answers2