I am using the following regex to match an account number. When we originally put this regex together, the rule was that an account number would only ever begin with a single letter. That has since changed and I have an account number that has 3 letters at the beginning of the string.
I'd like to have a regex that will match a minimum of 1 letter and a maximum of 3 letters at the beginning of the string. The last issue is the length of the string. It can be as long as 9 characters and a minimum of 3.
Here is what I am currently using.
'/^([A-Za-z]{1})([0-9]{7})$/'
Is there a way to match all of this?
You want:
^[A-Za-z]([A-Za-z]{2}|[A-Za-z][0-9]|[0-9]{2})[0-9]{0,6}$
The initial [A-Za-z] ensures that it starts with a letter, the second bit ([A-Za-z]{2}|[A-Za-z][0-9]|[0-9]{2}) ensures that it's at least three characters long and consists of between one and three letters at the start, and the final bit [0-9]{0,6} allows you to go up to 9 characters in total.
Further explaining:
^ Start of string/line anchor.
[A-Za-z] First character must be alpha.
( [A-Za-z]{2} Second/third character are either alpha/alpha,
|[A-Za-z][0-9] alpha/digit,
|[0-9]{2} or digit/digit
) (also guarantees minimum length of three).
[0-9]{0,6} Then up to six digits (to give length of 3 thru 9).
$ End of string/line marker.
Try this:
'/^([A-Za-z]{1,3})([0-9]{0,6})$/'
That will give you from 1 to 3 letters and from 3 to 9 total characters.