Validating a user Id using regular expressions

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I am creating a username validation. I am using this regex:

^[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_\-]{0,4}[a-zA-Z0-9]$

which takes input that allows lower case, upper case, numbers, hyphens, and underscores. The hyphen and underscore must not be at the start or end of the string. I do not want the username to include two consecutive hyphens or underscores, like Aquib- -qureshi or aquib_ _qureshi (spaces shown for clarity only).

Can I do this using regex or do I have to write a piece of code to look for those consecutive characters?

How to do that? Can anyone help me out with an example?

Thanks in advance.

Posted 30-Sep-12 7:32am

shaikh-adil

Updated 22-Jul-18 0:09am

Yvan Rodrigues

v2

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ridoy 30-Sep-12 14:21pm

no you don't need to use code for that..add _ _/-- with your regular expression

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Yvan Rodrigues · Answer 1 · 2012-09-30T08:21:00

Solution 1

^([a-zA-Z0-9](?(?!__|--)[a-zA-Z0-9_\-])+[a-zA-Z0-9])$

or

^([a-zA-Z0-9](?(?!__|--)[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]){0,4}[a-zA-Z0-9])$

to limit to 6 characters like your example.

The magic sauce is the negative lookaround assertion.

Please mark answered if I helped you. —Yvan

Posted 30-Sep-12 8:21am

Yvan Rodrigues

Updated 30-Sep-12 8:31am

v3

Comments

ridoy 30-Sep-12 14:22pm

yes that's the right one as i said...+5

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 14:30pm

{0,4}
this will take 5 charecters right? So how 6 will be taken? I didint got you

Yvan Rodrigues 30-Sep-12 14:32pm

No, it will take between zero and four character matches; plus the start and end characters == 6.

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 14:37pm

what diffrence between your regex and this one?
Can you explain bro
^[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}(-[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}|_[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5})?$

Yvan Rodrigues 30-Sep-12 14:46pm

That one means:
- start with between 1 and 5 characters from the set a-z, A-Z, 0-9.
- the next character MUST be a hyphen or an underscore.
- end with between 1 and 5 characters from the set a-z, A-Z, 0-9.

- there must be between 3 and 11 characters.

Do yourself a favour and download Expresso and read the "30 Minute Regex Tutorial" on this site.

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 14:57pm

sorry bro. But i have download its not easy to understand. I cant get there anything so i asked here.
And by the way.
what diffrence between your regex and this one?
Can you explain bro
^[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}(-[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}|_[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5})?$
is correct? And same as your right?
Your output and this output will be equal

Yvan Rodrigues 30-Sep-12 15:36pm

No, not the same.
First, yours can be shortened to ^[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}([\-_][a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5})?$; however it is more restrictive than mine.
Here are some examples of differences.
Mine will allow, yours will disallow:

happy_fun_user
rabbit-foot
7
sally-jean_smith

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 15:48pm

but in any form have you seen any username which will have underscores and hifen in a single at the same time?

Yvan Rodrigues 30-Sep-12 15:52pm

I don't follow. I think you need to clarify exactly what you wish to allow/disallow and what your allowable minimum/maximum lengths are.

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 15:53pm

like sally-jean_smith?
It is valid?? For username?
And in your case
only 7 is accpetable? Is is not a username kind thing. Do you think

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 16:04pm

i need i username
which will be minimum of 4 charecters and maximum of 15 chracters
which will allow hifen and underscore and dot in the middle but not in starting and ending of username
(which will not allow symbols except hifen and underscore and dot)
should disallow
-aquib
_aquib
.aquibxyz
aquib.
aquibxyz--qureshi
aquib__xyzqureshi
aquibqureshi-
aquib..qureshi
aquib_ // means no symbols will be there at end
and username should not be numbers it should be mixing of numbers and alphabets or it should be only alphabets
hope this will be understoo

Yvan Rodrigues 30-Sep-12 16:45pm

Can certainly be done with regex. Due to all the clauses it will require at least 3 expressions separated by the | operator. Unfortunately you'll need to find someone with more spare time than me.

shaikh-adil 7-Oct-12 1:12am

bro i'v got this regex
(?!^[a-zA-Z0-9\.\-_]{1,2}$)(?!^[a-zA-Z0-9\.\-_]{16,}$)(?!^[0-9]{3,15}$)^(?:[a-zA-Z0-9](?:\.|_|-)?)+[a-zA-Z0-9]$
which is same as i want it doesnt take
aquib__qureshi
aquib..qureshi
aquib--qureshi
-aquib
aquib-
aquib_
aquib_
means it doesnt take any symbol at starting and ending and cannot take any consecutive symbols
but the problem is it takes this type of values
aquib_qureshi-
i want only one symbol in a row.
can you help me please

shaikh-adil 30-Sep-12 16:53pm

okay i though you will help me. I thought i should add dot with dash and underscore in my regex. But my bad luck. That your not helping.
But Any ways have nice time bro