Questions of Javascript Regular Expression

[Sam Sunamin]

I have one problem about JavaScript regular expression which does not work as what I want.
User has reqirement as following:
W = Alpha/Numeric (No Blank)
Y = Alpha/Blank
Z = Numeric/Blank

Now user required the field must match mask:WWWWWYZ, which means
The match value for this should be "12345","12345A", or "12345A9"
or "12345 (2 spaces)","12345A (1 space)", or "12345A9"

I translated the mask to the following javaScript regular expression:
"[a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9]([a-z]|(\s*))([0-9]|(\s*))"
However, this regular expression match value for "1234567", this should not happen.

If you change regular expression to ]"[a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9]([a-z]|(\s+))([0-9]|(\s+))", then "12345" could not match.

Anyone in this forum can help me with this? This is really urgent for our project, which is cutting off soon.

Thanks in advance.

Sam

[Eric Pascarello]

You are going to need a ? for the second half to say this can appear one time

...[a-z0-9](([a-z]|(\s+))([0-9]|(\s+)))?

Eric

[Sam Sunamin]

Eric,

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

We have the other several other Charaters to stand for other situation:
A -Alpha no blank
X- A-Z,0-9 and variable blanks,
B- blank,
9- 0-9 numeric only
and
W = Alpha/Numeric (No Blank)
Y = Alpha/Blank
Z = Numeric/Blank


I didn't make myself very clear here.

"WWWWWYZ" is not the user's possible mask.

They may have mask whatever they what.

They may have "YZWWZYW" or "AAAXXBBWYZ".

So I have to match character by character.

Can your solution satisfy all different kinds of combination?

I will try you solution like:
...[a-z0-9]([a-z]|(\s+))?([0-9]|(\s+))?


Thank in advance.

Sam

[Sam Sunamin]

Hi Eric or any expert from this forum,

Can someone help me to solve this problem?

Thanks and regards,

Sam

[Sam Sunamin]

Hi Eric,

I already tried
...[a-z0-9]([a-z]|(\s+))?([0-9]|(\s+))?

This reg expression will match
'123456', '1234567' for mask 'WWWWWYZ' that is not what I want.

Any idea why? Or what I should do?

Thanks and regards,

Sam

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Sam,
Why do you have to use a regular expression? It seems easier to get the character at each position in the string and compare to the rules for that character.

[Sam Sunamin]

Thank Eric and Jeanne for your reply.

The problem is solved. User has special requirement when "X","Y" and "Z" is at the beginning and at the end.

Regards,
Sam