I need to validate postcode in a specific format that was given to me, per country basis.
For example:
$postcode_validation = array
(
'Australia' => array('NNNN'),
'Bahrain' => array('NNN', 'NNNN'),
'Netherlands' => array('NNNN AA'),
'United States' => array('NNNNN', 'NNNNN-NNNN', 'NNNNN-NNNNNN')
);
Each country can have as many variation of postcode format as they want; where:
So, if we take Australia for example, it should validate to true for:
etc...
and should fail on:
etc...
Given that, I am trying to create a single function I can use to validate a postcode for a given country against all the variation of the postcode. function should return true if the postcode matches against at least 1 of the rule and return false if no match is made.
So, this is how I tried to do it (starting with the simple one):
<?php
// mapping
$postcode_validation = array
(
'Australia' => array('NNNN'),
'Bahrain' => array('NNN', 'NNNN'),
'Netherlands' => array('NNNN AA'),
'United States' => array('NNNNN', 'NNNNN-NNNN', 'NNNNN-NNNNNN')
);
// helper function
function isPostcodeValid($country, $postcode)
{
// Load Mapping
global $postcode_validation;
// Init
$is_valid = false;
// Check If Country Exists
if (!array_key_exists($country, $postcode_validation))
return false;
// Load Postcode Validation Rules
$validation_rules = $postcode_validation[$country];
// Iterate Through Rules And Check
foreach ($validation_rules as $validation_rule)
{
// Replace N with \d for regex
$validation_rule = str_replace('N', '\\d', $validation_rule);
// Check If Postcode Matches Pattern
if (preg_match("/$validation_rule/", $postcode)) {
$is_valid = true;
break;
}
}
// Finished
return $is_valid;
}
// Test
$myCountry = 'Australia';
$myPostcode = '1468';
var_dump(isPostcodeValid($myCountry, $myPostcode));
?>
This appears to work by returning true. But it also returns true for $myPostcode = '1468a';
Does anyone have a way to do this dynamic postcode validation by fixed rules?
Update
This is how it was solved; by using the regex from Zend library: http://pastebin.com/DBKhpkur
OP's regex was not working correctly because it was not considering the start and end of the line.
As commented by @cOle2, line
if (preg_match("/$validation_rule/", $postcode)) {
should be changed to
if (preg_match("/^$validation_rule$/", $postcode)) {
Also, as noted in the edit by the OP, another good solution is to use the regex from Zend library: http://pastebin.com/DBKhpkur