Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : how to display error if non english text?

[lexington]

Some people are submitting text like arabic and other languages that use symbols into my post form. Is there a simple php code example that can detect anything other than regular english characters and display a message that only english text is allowed? Thanks.

[okapy]

if (preg_match("/[^\x00-\x7F]/",$string)) {
// Display Error
} else {
// English only
}

[lexington]

Thanks, but it didn't work and I got the error message:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: No ending delimiter '/'

I used some text as an example that someone submitted into my form that reads:

региÑ�трацÐ

Wouldn't the preg match just use letters A-Z and numbers as well as symbols !@#$%^ etc. to make this work?

*EDIT*

I finally found a google result but it doesn't really work either as it appears even for regular english text:

PHP Code:

 if ( !preg_match('/^[a-z0-9\p{P}]*$/i', $description) ) 
  {
       $error_msg = "Please only use English characters such as letters a - z and numbers 0 - 9.";
  } 


Perhaps it just needs to be tweaked?

[Natcoweb]

if (! preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$/', $description)) {
...
}

[okapy]

Actually my way is better then [a-zA-Z0-9] because it keeps all punctuation as well, not just letters and numbers.

Your server set to differentiate quotes, so just change " to ' to fix the No ending delimiter '/' problem.

Here:

if (preg_match('/[^\x00-\x7F]/',$string)) {
// Display Error
} else {
// English only
}

[RincewindWizard]

Be very careful with this sort of regular expression. What's the purpose behind blocking these other characters? If you had a customer called Zoë, would you allow her to enter her name? What's the actual problem you are experiencing?