[thelist] RegEx problem again

[Simon Perry]

Kowalkowski, Lee (ASPIRE) wrote:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Tom Dell'Aringa [mailto:pixelmech at yahoo.com]
>>var namematch = /^[a-zA-Z]{3,}$/.test(nametext.value);
>>namematch = (namematch  || /^[a-zA-Z\*]{4,}$/.test(nametext.value));
>>
>>Which worked just fine, till we realized we need to allow one 
>>or more SPACES as well! How do you
>>add a space to the pattern? (and allow for as many spaces as 
>>they like?)
>>    
>>
>
>Just add a space to the character sets, so [a-zA-Z] becomes [a-zA-Z ].  Note
>the space before the closing square bracket.
>
>  
>
That wont work as you will no longer ensure a minimum of 3 alpha chars
with or without the asterisk "a b" and "a b*" will now validate.

The original may have a problem as well as "****" will validate. I
didn't follow the original thread but I presume you want one or more
wild card * to be allowed and a minimum of 3 alpha chars?

How about this

testString=nametext.value.replace(/ /g,"");// remove spaces from our
test string as these are allowed
testString=testString.replace(/\*/g,"");// remove all asterisk from our
test string as they are allowed too
namematch=/^([A-Za-z]{3,})$/.test(testString);//a match is returned if 3
or more alpha chars are present
if(namematch==true)
  {
  //pass the original nametext.value to your next step as it validates
  }
  else
    {
    //warn user the input doesn't validate
    }

Simon