note 101978 added to language.variables.basics

If you need to check user entered value for a proper PHP variable naming convention you need to add ^ to the above regular expression so that the regular expression should be '^[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*'. Example <?php $name="20011aa"; if(!preg_match('/[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*/',$name)) echo $name.' is not a valid PHP variable name'; else echo $name.' is valid PHP variable name'; ?> Outputs: 2011aa is valid PHP variable name but <?php $name="20011aa"; if(!preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z_\x7f-\xff][a-zA-Z0-9_\x7f-\xff]*/',$name)) echo $name.' is not a valid PHP variable name'; else echo $name.' is valid PHP variable name'; ?> Outputs: 2011aa is not a valid PHP variable name ---- Server IP: 69.147.83.197 Probable Submitter: 213.147.121.37 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.basics.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/101978 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101978 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/101978 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php