thanx!!! it worked like a charm! =) just a question, i've tried adding a ^ to the front of your expressions and a $ to the end of your expression and it still worked.. but is it recommended? why didn't you use them? ^(sin|hkg|bkk|jkt)x[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}$ hwee ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Holmes" <holmes072000@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Ng Hwee Hwee" <hhwee@xxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: "PHP DB List" <php-db@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 10:22 AM Subject: Re: Regular Expression > Ng Hwee Hwee wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > I somehow just couldn't get my regular expression syntax correct. Will you please help me? > > > > some examples of my valid string is: > > sinx0401-001-45 > > hkgx0403-020-12 > > jktx0402-000-01 > > bkkx0407-013-44 > > > > the definition is: > > 1st 4 characters - can only be "sinx" or "hkgx" or "bkkx" or "jktx" > > next 4 characters - numbers 0 to 9 > > next 1 character - a dash "-" > > next 3 characters - numbers 0 to 9 > > next 1 character - a dash "-" > > last 2 characters - numbers 0 to 9 > > (sin|hkg|bkk|jkt)x[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2} > > -- > > John Holmes -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php