PHP validation of a textarea

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Hi, I am trying to validate the information provided by the user on my website.

I have a textarea to store description of something.
I want to know how can I check if the user only enters numbers, alphabets and common punctuation letters only.

This is how I am checking if the email address entered is valid.

VB

//checks if the email address is a valid email address
              if(!filter_var($_POST['contactInfo'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))

Posted 3-May-11 13:56pm

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Peter_in_2780 · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-03T15:35:00

Use a regular expression.

if (preg_match(/^[A-Za-z0-9.,+]/, $_POST['your_field']) == 0)
    // text is good

Read up on regular expressions, particularly character classes and escaping. Put the characters you will accept inside the []. In my example, upper- and lower case letters, digits, period comma and plus are acceptable.

If you're having trouble getting it to work, there are online regex tools you can use.

Cheers,
Peter
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