I have the following regex query that I built the idea is to take user input (phone numbers) and then make sure all the numbers are the exact same format when I store it in the database.
The problem I have is that this regex of mine does not cater for all the scenarios, I will explain in a bit.
This is my current code:
//format phone numbers
function Number_SA($number)
{
//strip out everything but numbers
$number = preg_replace("/[^0-9]/", "", $number);
//Strip out leading zeros:
$number = ltrim($number, '0');
//The default country code
$default_country_code = '+27';
//Check if the number doesn't already start with the correct dialling code:
if ( !preg_match('/^[+]'.$default_country_code.'/', $number) ) {
$number = $default_country_code.$number;
}
//return the converted number:
return $number;
}
The behavior I want is the following; If a user enters any of the following formats the number should end up as +27
Should all be converted to:
PS: I first clean the number input with this:
function clean_input($data)
{
$data = trim($data);
$data = stripslashes($data);
$data = htmlspecialchars($data);
return $data;
}
And then I use the Number_SA($number) function on the number. In other words:
$number = clean_input($_POST["cell_number"]);
$msisdn = Number_SA($number);
PPS: Number_SA, the SA stands for South Africa since I live there and I want this to work for our country code which is +27
Solution, I ended up with @Kamil Kiełczewski answer by building it into my program as follows:
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
if (empty($_POST["cell_numbers"])) {
$err = "Please add numbers!";
} else {
$numbers = test_input($_POST["cell_numbers"]);
$numbers = explode("
", str_replace("", "", $numbers));
foreach ($numbers as $number) {
$msisdn = preg_replace('/^(?:\+27|27|0)?/','+27', $number);
//insert into the database
}
}
}
Here is your regexp:
^(?:\+27|27|0)?(\d*)
and if it match something use this: +27$1
Here is working example (improved): https://regex101.com/r/VaUAKN/7
EXPLANATION:
First we wanna split prefix (if exists) with number: ^(?:\+27|27|0)? the ?: inside group makes that prefix group will be ignored in results. The ^ means begining of line. The last ? allow prefix to not exists. And at the end (\d*) catch numbers after prefix
PHP working example (Wiktor Stribiżew noted that in regexp we can can omit (\d*) and $1 and change \+27|27 to \+?27 ):
$numOld = "2712345678";
$num = preg_replace('/^(?:\+?27|0)?/','+27', $numOld); // > $num = "+2712345678"
You can use a switch to check which format the number is in, and alter it accordingly:
<?php
$x = [
'797734809',
'0797734809',
'27797734809',
'0027797734809',
'+27797734809',
];
function formatPhoneNo($no) {
switch (true) {
case (preg_match('#^7\d{8}$#', $no)):
$no = '+27' . $no;
break;
case (preg_match('#^07\d{8}$#', $no)):
$no = '+27' . substr($no, 1);
break;
case (preg_match('#^277\d{8}$#', $no)):
$no = '+' . $no;
break;
case (preg_match('#^00277\d{8}$#', $no)):
$no = '+' . substr($no, 2);
break;
case (preg_match('#^\+277\d{8}$#', $no)):
break;
default:
throw new InvalidArgumentException('Invalid format supplied');
break;
}
return $no;
}
foreach ($x as $y) {
echo formatPhoneNo($y) . "
";
}
I added an extra format in your array, some people put 00 followed by the country code with no +. This outputs:
+27797734809
+27797734809
+27797734809
+27797734809
+27797734809
Which you can see here https://3v4l.org/ZVrNm