Pattern matching -- driver's license number validation

[phinsman]

Hello all...

I'm trying to validate driver's license numbers for each state. I'm going to use a hash of patterns. Some states, such as Arkansas, my example below, have more than one possible method.

I'm getting the pattern to match properly on all three possibilities. However, I need to make sure that there isn't extra text at the beginning or ending of the user's input. Otherwise, the validation is useless. For example:

123-45-6789 is correct
123-45-6789extra_text is NOT correct.

I used the ^ and $ symbols. The ^ works fine; extra text at the beginning is disallowed, and it matches properly if there isn't any. The $ sign, however, isn't working for me. No matter what I try I can't get it to match. I have tried adding () around each possibility but that does not work either.

Code is below:

##########################################################
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

#Use a hash for patterns
my %p = ();

#Valid patterns for Arkansas:
# 123456789     (SSN, no hyphens)
# 123-45-6789   (SSN with hyphens)
# 912345678     (9 then 8 digits)

$p{'AR'} = '^[\d]{3}[\d]{2}[\d]{3}$'.
           '|'.
           '^[\d]{3}\-[\d]{2}\-[\d]{3}$'.
           '|'.
           '^9[\d]{8}$';

#Sample driver license number
my $dl = '123456789';

#$match is just a variable that reports YES if a match if found
my $match = '';

#Check for a match
if($dl =~ /$p{'AR'}/) {
        $match = "YES";
}

#Output the driver license number, and whether it matched or not
my $line = sprintf("%-14s  %-4s",$dl,$match);
print $line,"\n";

#Exit the program
exit;
##########################################################

When I run the program as is I get this output:
123456789

No 'YES' for a match.

Thanks for any help.

Dale

 

[siberian]

All of your regex are matching on 8, 9 not digits


Change $dl to

my $dl = '12345678';


And it matches
--

^[\d]{3}[\d]{2}[\d]{3}$
# 3 + 2 + 3 == 8
^[\d]{3}\-[\d]{2}\-[\d]{3}$
3 + 2 + 3 == 8
^9[\d]{8}$
# 8 == 8

 

[dchoulette]

I tried to compact it a little:

#!/usr/bin/perl 

use strict; 

#Use a hash for patterns 
my %p = (
	 AR => '^(9\d{8}|\d{3}(-?)\d{2}\2\d{3})$'
	 );

foreach my $dl qw(
12345678
912345678
123-45-678
123-45678
12345-678
812345678
stuff123-45-678
123-45-678stuff
abc-de-fgh
) {
    my $valid = $dl =~ m/$p{'AR'}/;
    print "License number '$dl' is " . ($valid ? "valid" : "invalid") ."\n"
}

--------------------
"When all else has failed, read the manuals."

Denis

 

[phinsman]

Wow...all that work and my only mistake was that I couldn't count!

Thanks a lot for your help guys. At least the problem is solved; I was truly frustrated with it but it's nice when it's something simple that doesn't really need fixing.

Thanks again!

Dale