Question

Google isn’t being much help, so I’m hoping someone on here could help me?

preg_match(‘^(MR|MRS)./s[a-z]/s[a-z]$/i’, $_POST[‘fullname’])

I need a regular expression that allows a name with the salutation of Mr. or Mrs. followed by two text strings separated by any number of spaces. Mine isn’t working and I have no idea why. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

The regex is invalid syntax, it needs to start and end with the same delimiter:

preg_match(‘/^mrs?\.\s+[a-z]+\s+[a-z]+$/i’, $_POST[‘fullname’])
............^..........................^

Know however that this is a fragile regex to use – it is not uncommon to have multiple first names, to use a middle name, or to have a double barreled surname, or to have accents in your name – e.g. Zöe.

regex explanation

/ - start regex
^mr - string starts with mr
s? - optional "s"
\. - period
\s+ - 0 or more whitespace chars (tabs or spaces)
[a-z]+ - 0 or more letters
\s+ - 0 or more whitespace chars (tabs or spaces)
[a-z]+ - 0 or more letters
$ - end of string
/ - end of regex
i - whole regex is case insensitive.