Laravel regex validation for price OR empty

Question

I am trying to make a regex for price OR empty. I have the price part (Dutch uses comma instead of point) which actualy works

/^\d+(,\d{1,2})?$/

The regex above validates ok on the value 21,99

Now I try to add the empty part so the field can be... just empty ^$

/(^$|^\d+(,\d{1,2})?$)/

But Laravel starts to complain as soon as I change the regex: "Method [validate^\d+(,\d{1,2})?$)/] does not exist."

Works ok:

$rules = [
    'price' => 'regex:/^\d+(,\d{1,2})?$/'
];

Laravel says no...:

$rules = [
    'price' => 'regex:/(^$|^\d+(,\d{1,2})?$)/'
];

Kenken9990 answer - Laravel doesn't break anymore but an empty value is still wrong:

$rules = [
    'price' => 'regex:/^(\d+(,\d{1,2})?)?$/'
];

Can you add a valid & invalid patterns, from which regex need to validate. — Sinto, Jul 02 '18 at 18:55
In php are you able to use a regex like a lambda function? I didn't think you could. — emsimpson92, Jul 02 '18 at 18:57
My apologies, I meant an anonymous function. `=>` is C# syntax for exactly that. It looks like it has [a different meaning](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14037290/what-does-this-mean-in-php-or) in PHP. Your problem is with the `=>` — emsimpson92, Jul 02 '18 at 19:05
@emsimpson92 In PHP you create an array like that. Example 1 works, example 2 fails. It's just the regex I think, or Laravel..., oh and now I know what you mean with Lamba, something with passing a value to a function or something? — poashoas, Jul 02 '18 at 19:08
Yes, but you're assigning a keyvaluepair with the key `price` and value `your regex`. the regex is not your value, just the pattern you want to run the value through — emsimpson92, Jul 02 '18 at 19:08

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 02 '18 at 19:44

9

is this work ?

$rules = [
    'price' => 'nullable|regex:/^(\d+(,\d{1,2})?)?$/'
];

edited Jul 02 '18 at 19:44

poashoas

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answered Jul 02 '18 at 19:12

kenken9999

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You are my hero, I 54ck at regex – poashoas Jul 02 '18 at 19:15
what a bummer, it doesn;t break anymore but still it's says an empty value is not OK, but it should – poashoas Jul 02 '18 at 19:18
2

@poashoas Add `'nullable'` – Wiktor Stribiżew Jul 02 '18 at 19:26
1

submit a empty input will change to null, means set to nullable and no need regex for the empty part – kenken9999 Jul 02 '18 at 19:27
@WiktorStribiżew that should be an answer, not just a comment – poashoas Jul 02 '18 at 19:34
sorry for i test it on pure php code preg_match(), and i forgot empty input will change to null, @WiktorStribiżew that should be an answer – kenken9999 Jul 02 '18 at 19:38
@poashoas If you read documentations, you would have found the answer earlier than somebody else that googled it for you. – revo Jul 02 '18 at 19:51
@revo and you just got here to tell me how dissapointed you are in me? – poashoas Jul 02 '18 at 20:09
@poashoas Not really. The point is reading manuals prevents people from being surprised mistakenly. – revo Jul 02 '18 at 20:21
@revo sorry for my angry response, but it makes somebody feel stupid. Stackoverflow is a place to ask silly questions too. And yes, I do read documentation but it didn't popped my mind, I was to busy with the regex. – poashoas Jul 02 '18 at 20:25
@poashoas I didn't call your knowledge into question. – revo Jul 02 '18 at 20:31

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 02 '18 at 19:44

| is also the separator for multiple validation rules.

For example the following is valid:

 $rules = [ "price" => "nullable|numeric|between:0,99" ];

To use it regex you need to switch to using an array:

$rules = [
    'price' => [ 'regex:/(^$|^\d+(,\d{1,2})?$)/' ]
];

This is also pointed out in the documentation:

Note: When using the regex / not_regex patterns, it may be necessary to specify rules in an array instead of using pipe delimiters, especially if the regular expression contains a pipe character.

Incidentally the original rule might also do what you want and can also be written as:

$rules [
     'price' => [ 'nullable', 'numeric', 'between:0,99' ]
]

Laravel regex validation for price OR empty

2 Answers2