PHP preg_replace removing string it's checking

Question

I am using preg_replace to validate first and last name coming from my database. If I don't include preg_replace, the values are passed on like normal, but if I do use it, nothing is passed. Here is my current code:

$firstname = preg_replace("/^[A-Za-z]+$/", "", $firstname);
$lastname = preg_replace("/^[A-Za-z]+$/", "", $lastname);

I am using similar validation for other variables without issue, it's really only happening for these. I'm not too familiar with validation, so any help would be appreciated.

What are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to remove all non English alphabet letters? Currently you are removing all characters if the string contains only English alphabet letters. — jkrnak, Feb 11 '17 at 17:57

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 11 '17 at 18:02

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You need to use /[^A-Za-z]/ regex, this will filter out all except A-Z and a-z

$string = '09test'; 
$new_string = preg_replace("/[^A-Za-z]/",'',$string);
echo $new_string; //prints test

answered Feb 11 '17 at 18:02

Ambrish Pathak

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

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Try /[^A-Za-z]/g. Note the global modifier at the end. You can check on https://regex101.com/.

But I recommend you transliterate your non English chars to English Transliterate any convertible utf8 char into ascii equivalent In this case you won't lose data for example in my name which is János, but you'll get Janos instead of Jnos

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Feb 11 '17 at 18:02

jkrnak

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PHP preg_replace removing string it's checking

2 Answers2