Restrict user from entering search string start with wildcard using custom validator

Question

I am writing a search module where i need to restrict user from entering search string start with wildcard using custom validator like

*apple, *?apple, ?apple, **apple, ??apple etc

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Wouldn't it be better to not limit the user, but escape his text before passing it on? If you're using Regex, you could use Regex.Escape (See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.regularexpressions.regex.escape.aspx) or SQL Like (see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1428197/how-to-escape-a-string-for-use-with-the-like-operator-in-sql-server) — jessehouwing, Mar 21 '12 at 14:02

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '12 at 13:40

0

How about:

^[^*?]

This will match a string that doesn't begin with * or ?

answered Mar 21 '12 at 13:40

Toto

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 21 '12 at 13:41

0

What about using a validation expression like

^[a-zA-Z].*$

i.e. allowing only a letter as first character, or

^[^\*\?].*$

i.e. anything that is not a * or ? as first character.

answered Mar 21 '12 at 13:41

Paolo Tedesco

2 Answers2