validate number syntax

ibjdt · Dec 20, 2009

i am trying to validate a price field as any number of numerals (but not required like $.99) followed by a decimal (but no required like $9)followed by 1 or 2 numerals (but not required like $9 or $9.).

i start by removing leading and trailing white space and stripping spaces, commas and $ sign, then check what's left

Code:

# should only contain numbers and decimals
$price =~ m/[^0-9\.]/

# should follow the pattern described above.....
$price =~ m/([0-9]+)?(\.{1})?([0-9]{1,2})?/

if the value passes i use sprintf to properly format to 2 decimals.

everything works except when 3 numerals are entered after the decimal it passes.

why doesn't it fail since i include {1,2} in the code?

thanks.

feherke · Dec 20, 2009

Hi

Your question has nothing to do with CGI, it is just plain [tt]perl[/tt].

Regarding your regular expressions :

Code:

[s][gray]# should only contain numbers and decimals[/gray][/s]
[gray]# true if $price contains at least one character that is not a digit or a dot[/gray]
[navy]$price[/navy] [teal]=~[/teal] [b]m[/b][fuchsia]/[^0-9\.]/[/fuchsia]

[s][gray]# should follow the pattern described above.....[/gray][/s]
[gray]# always true[/gray]
[navy]$price[/navy] [teal]=~[/teal] [b]m[/b][fuchsia]/([0-9]+)?(\.{1})?([0-9]{1,2})?/[/fuchsia]

Better take a look at man perlfaq4 | How do I determine whether a scalar is a number/whole/integer/float?.

Feherke.

http://free.rootshell.be/~feherke/

goBoating · Dec 23, 2009

As feherke said, this is a pure Perl question. In the future, you'll probably get better response there.

For now, you should realize that, in your first pattern match, $price =~ m/[^0-9\.]/, when the first character in your character class, those inside the square brackets [], is an up carat, it turns the class into a negative. So, instead of looking for anythign that is a 0-9 or a decimal, you are looking for anything that is not one of the chars in your char class.

I have not played with you second pattern match, but, I suspect it will work if you put a $ as the last char in the match. That pins the match to the end of the string you are matching. Like
$price =~ m/([0-9]+)?(\.{1})?([0-9]{1,2})?$/

I would also put an up carat at the beginning to pin down that start of your match with the start of the string. Like,
$price =~ m/^([0-9]+)?(\.{1})?([0-9]{1,2})?$/

Without the $, you are asking if the string has 1 or 2 chars from the character class [0-9]. A string with 3 chars does, in fact 1 and 2 chars from that char class, thus it passes the match expression.

With the $ you are asking if the string has 1 or 2 chars from the character class [0-9] and then ends. A string with 3 chars after the decimal will fail this match.

'hope this helps

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validate number syntax

ibjdt

Programmer

feherke

Programmer

goBoating

Programmer

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