Regular Expressions

Hi all

Hopefully a nice easy one :o)

I've got a table with a list of 'installers'. I have a form for
visitors to find an installer in their area searchning on post code.

Let's say we have installers in:

RG (Reading)
G (Glasgow)

The page tells the vistor to type in the first letter(s) of their post
code. So, if a visitor types in their postcode as RG23 1TQ, it works.
If they type in G23 1TQ then it doesn't. If they type in just G - as
instructed - then it works.

I've just chopped off all but the first 2 digits of whatever they type
in (RG or G2). What I would like to do is (In pigeon PHP):

If characters one and two are letters, use this for the search.

If character one is a letter and character two is a number then just
chop the first character off and use it for the search.

elseif display error.

What I can't get my head round is the logic and regular expressions
behind this.

Could someone throw me a lifeline please.

Cheers

Andy

Andy Jacobs wrote:

> Hi all
>
> Hopefully a nice easy one :o)
>
> I've got a table with a list of 'installers'. I have a form for
> visitors to find an installer in their area searchning on post code.
>
> Let's say we have installers in:
>
> RG (Reading)
> G (Glasgow)
>
> The page tells the vistor to type in the first letter(s) of their post
> code. So, if a visitor types in their postcode as RG23 1TQ, it works.
> If they type in G23 1TQ then it doesn't. If they type in just G - as
> instructed - then it works.
>
> I've just chopped off all but the first 2 digits of whatever they type
> in (RG or G2). What I would like to do is (In pigeon PHP):
>
> If characters one and two are letters, use this for the search.
>
> If character one is a letter and character two is a number then just
> chop the first character off and use it for the search.
>
> elseif display error.
>
> What I can't get my head round is the logic and regular expressions
> behind this.

Grab the first 2 characters (if the entry is 2 or more characters)

replace digit with "" (Nothing)

Mick

.oO(Andy Jacobs)

>I've just chopped off all but the first 2 digits of whatever they type
>in (RG or G2). What I would like to do is (In pigeon PHP):
>
>If characters one and two are letters, use this for the search.
>
>If character one is a letter and character two is a number then just
>chop the first character off and use it for the search.
>
>elseif display error.

if (preg_match('#^[a-z]{1,2}#i', $yourString, $result)) {
// use $result[0] for search
} else {
// error handling
}

Micha