Question

Hey could someone help me to test if a string matches 3 double digit figures separated by a colon? For Example:

12:13:14

I understand I should be using preg_match but I can’t work out how

Preferably the first number should be between 0 and 23 and the second two numbers should be between 0 and 59 like a time but I can always work that out with if statements.

Thanks

Answer 1

You could use preg_match with number comparissons on $string = '23:24:25';

preg_match('~^(\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2})$~', $string, $matches);

if (count($matches) != 3 || $matches[1] > 23 || $matches[2] > 59 || $matches[3] > 59 ......)
    die('The digits are not right');

Or you can even ditch the regular expresions and use explode with numeric comparisons.

$numbers = explode(':', $string);

if (count($numbers) != 3 || $numbers[0] > 23 || $numbers[1] > 59 || $numbers[2] > 59 ......)
    die('The digits are not right');