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I'm making a search form, so I want the user to enter any word or string which contains alpha numeric and space between the words.

I want to allow alpha numeric and spaces in the search bar but so far I'm not successful. I did research on google to find something that can help me to do this but so far no luck. I need your help on how to write the regular expression for preg_match So what i am trying to do here is replace any character that is not 0-9 a-z A-Z and space be replaced with "" 

$searchq = mysql_prep(urldecode($_GET['q']));
$searchq = preg_replace("#[^0-9a-z\s+]#i", "", $searchq);

EDIT: After getting deep into what is happening and what i want to achieve, i found out that the problem is with my query and not my regex ! If the user enters for example first name and last name eg John Doe, i want the search result to get back with John doe from database ! so I need please your help with my query on how can i make this achievable, i have 2 columns one for First name which is "first_name" and one for last name which is "last_name"

here is my query :

$query_search2 = "SELECT * FROM users_table WHERE first_name LIKE '%$searchq%' OR last_name LIKE '%$searchq%' OR username LIKE '%$searchq%' OR first_name LIKE '%$searchq%' AND last_name LIKE '%$searchq%'";
firashelou
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  • I asked similar question before, [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45665579/empty-regex-matches-any-string) – Accountant م Jan 02 '19 at 10:01
  • @Accountantم I tried this $searchq = preg_replace("/.?/", "", $searchq); but when i enter the string it returns every result that can be found in database even if it does not match the searched string ! – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 10:06
  • @Nelson but i am making my search using php only and not ajax – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 10:08
  • @Accountantم I am using the same as you did in your post but none is giving me what i need. I need for the search if i entered a string let's say "This is a string" which contains spaces too to be able to retrieve it from database – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 13:53
  • What is the string you want the user to enter(search for), so you retrieve "This is a string" from your database ? – Accountant م Jan 02 '19 at 14:00
  • i gave an example, the string can be anything, the search function will search last name, first name, post, any field on the website which include spaces and line breaks – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 14:04
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    what i mean from my preg match is that any character other than 0-9 a-z and spaces be replaced with "", that is what i want – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 14:13
  • Ok i think my problem is with the query and not the regex ! – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 14:21

3 Answers3

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You can use the following Regex, which will find All alphabets regardless of case. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, white spaces which includes tabs, and underscore.

Regex: '(?:\w+|\s+){1,}'

If you do not want to capture Underscore, you can use the following:

Regex: '([A-Za-z0-9]+|\s+){1,}'

Deep
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  • thank you for your answer, after checking what i want to do the problem is with the query, i edited the question – firashelou Jan 02 '19 at 14:34
  • You need to update the query as follows. Your Regex here text needs to be replaced with the regex you want to use. I hope this helps, if not please revert back with your problem. SELECT * FROM USER_TABLE WHERE REGEXP_LIKE (first_name, 'your regex here') OR REGEXP_LIKE (last_name, 'your regex here') OR REGEXP_LIKE (username, 'your regex here'); If you are using your variable of regex in the query then print the query and make sure the query is getting generated correctly. – Deep Jan 02 '19 at 15:05
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The solution i managed to find is this : for regex expression i used :

$searchq = preg_replace("/[^A-Za-z0-9\s ]/", "", $searchq);

and for the query i used this :

// ut is the designation of the users_table which we define ourselves
            $query_search2 = "SELECT * FROM users_table ut WHERE CONCAT(ut.first_name, ' ', ut.last_name) LIKE '%$searchq%'";
firashelou
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You need to update the query as follows. Your Regex here text needs to be replaced with the regex you want to use. I hope this helps, if not please revert back with your problem.

SELECT * FROM USER_TABLE WHERE REGEXP_LIKE (first_name, 'your regex here') OR REGEXP_LIKE (last_name, 'your regex here') OR REGEXP_LIKE (username, 'your regex here'); If you are using your variable of regex in the query then print the query and make sure the query is getting generated correctly.

Use regex as per your need.--> You can use the following Regex, which will find All alphabets regardless of case. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, white spaces which includes tabs, and underscore.

Regex: '(?:\w+|\s+){1,}'

If you do not want to capture Underscore, you can use the following:

Regex: '([A-Za-z0-9]+|\s+){1,}

Deep
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