I was wondering how to make sure that there are no special chars included in a string like " ^ $ # " which i dont want people to use in their nicknames. In other words, how can i make sure that they only use english characters and numbers. I have tried to figure it out on PHP documentation but appears to be too complex for a beginner.
You have to use Regular Expressions (regex) to filter out bad characters.Checkout the exmaple below. PHP: $string = "Asdsd - sdsd ";if(!preg_match("/^[\w]+$/",$string)){ print("Bad characters found!");}
Thanks alot! That "regex" syntax is really lookin hard. Hope i can figure it out. There are so many characters to be omitted, so working out the pattern will be something messy i guess.
That regex only allows alphabets and numbers, do you want to remove the bad characters or just inform the user that he has enter some bad characters in his/her nickname?
I just noticed that the example pattern you've given filters out the entire charz except letters and numbers. Now the question is how to ommit numbers and allow some spesific charz.
PHP: $string = "Asdsd - sdsd "; if(!preg_match("/^[A-Za-z0-9-._]+$/",$string)) //see here I allowed -,_ and . { print("Bad characters found!"); }