PHP Forms Validate E-mail and URL

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# PHP Forms - Validate E-mail and URL

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This chapter show how to validate names, e-mails, and URLs.

## PHP - Validate Name

The code below shows a simple way to check if the name field only contains letters and whitespace. If the value of the name field is not valid, then store an error message:

$name = test_input($_POST["name"]);
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$name))
{
$nameErr = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}

| The preg_match() function searches a string for pattern, returning true if the pattern exists, and false otherwise.

## PHP - Validate E-mail

The code below shows a simple way to check if an e-mail address syntax is valid. If the e-mail address syntax is not valid, then store an error message:

$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
if (!preg_match("/([\w\-]+\@[\w\-]+\.[\w\-]+)/",$email))
{
$emailErr = "Invalid email format";
}

## PHP - Validate URL

The code below shows a way to check if a URL address syntax is valid (this regular expression also allows dashes in the URL). If the URL address syntax is not valid, then store an error message:

$website = test_input($_POST["website"]);
if (!preg_match("/\b(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/|www\.)[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|]/i",$website))
{
$websiteErr = "Invalid URL";
}

## PHP - Validate Name, E-mail, and URL

Now, the script looks like this:

## Example

<?php
// define variables and set to empty values
$nameErr = $emailErr = $genderErr = $websiteErr = "";
$name = $email = $gender = $comment = $website = "";
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST")
{
if (empty($_POST["name"]))
{$nameErr = "Name is required";}
else
{
$name = test_input($_POST["name"]);
// check if name only contains letters and whitespace
if (!preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z ]*$/",$name))
{
$nameErr = "Only letters and white space allowed";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["email"]))
{$emailErr = "Email is required";}
else
{
$email = test_input($_POST["email"]);
// check if e-mail address syntax is valid
if (!preg_match("/([\w\-]+\@[\w\-]+\.[\w\-]+)/",$email))
{
$emailErr = "Invalid email format";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["website"]))
{$website = "";}
else
{
$website = test_input($_POST["website"]);
// check if URL address syntax is valid (this regular expression also allows dashes in the URL)
if (!preg_match("/\b(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/|www\.)[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|]/i",$website))
{
$websiteErr = "Invalid URL";
}
}
if (empty($_POST["comment"]))
{$comment = "";}
else
{$comment = test_input($_POST["comment"]);}
if (empty($_POST["gender"]))
{$genderErr = "Gender is required";}
else
{$gender = test_input($_POST["gender"]);}
}
?>
Run example »

The next step is to show how to prevent the form from emptying all the input fields when the user submits the form.

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