Question

I need to validate input evidence number as per following formats in my model.

XXX-### 
XXX-#### 
XXX-##### 
XXX-######
XXXX-#####

XXXX are alphabets and #### are numeric digits

I have following in my model code.

validates_format_of :evidence_number, :with=> /[A-Z a-z]{3}-\d{3,6}/

It only works for digits less than 3 ie it works for XXX-12 but does not work for digits more than 6 i.e. it does not work for XXX-1234567

Answer 1

Try adding the ^ starts and $ ends with.

validates_format_of :evidence_number, :with=> /^[A-Za-z]{3,4}-\d{3,6}$/

Use mu is too short‘s answer though.