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Home » Documentation » Reference Documents » Validation Constraints Reference » Regex
2.3 version

Regex

Regex

Validates that a value matches a regular expression.

Applies to property or method
Options
Class Regex
Validator RegexValidator

Basic Usage

Suppose you have a description field and you want to verify that it begins with a valid word character. The regular expression to test for this would be /^\w+/, indicating that you're looking for at least one or more word characters at the beginning of your string:

  • YAML
    # src/Acme/BlogBundle/Resources/config/validation.yml
Acme\BlogBundle\Entity\Author:
    properties:
        description:
            - Regex: "/^\w+/"
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    // src/Acme/BlogBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace Acme\BlogBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    /**
     * @Assert\Regex("/^\w+/")
     */
    protected $description;
}
  • XML
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    <!-- src/Acme/BlogBundle/Resources/config/validation.xml -->
<class name="Acme\BlogBundle\Entity\Author">
    <property name="description">
        <constraint name="Regex">
            <option name="pattern">/^\w+/</option>
        </constraint>
    </property>
</class>
  • PHP
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    // src/Acme/BlogBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace Acme\BlogBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
    {
        $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('description', new Assert\Regex(array(
            'pattern' => '/^\w+/',
        )));
    }
}

Alternatively, you can set the match option to false in order to assert that a given string does not match. In the following example, you'll assert that the firstName field does not contain any numbers and give it a custom message:

  • YAML
    # src/Acme/BlogBundle/Resources/config/validation.yml
Acme\BlogBundle\Entity\Author:
    properties:
        firstName:
            - Regex:
                pattern: "/\d/"
                match:   false
                message: Your name cannot contain a number
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    // src/Acme/BlogBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace Acme\BlogBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    /**
     * @Assert\Regex(
     *     pattern="/\d/",
     *     match=false,
     *     message="Your name cannot contain a number"
     * )
     */
    protected $firstName;
}
  • XML
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    <!-- src/Acme/BlogBundle/Resources/config/validation.xml -->
<class name="Acme\BlogBundle\Entity\Author">
    <property name="firstName">
        <constraint name="Regex">
            <option name="pattern">/\d/</option>
            <option name="match">false</option>
            <option name="message">Your name cannot contain a number</option>
        </constraint>
    </property>
</class>
  • PHP
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    // src/Acme/BlogBundle/Entity/Author.php
namespace Acme\BlogBundle\Entity;

use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Author
{
    public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
    {
        $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('firstName', new Assert\Regex(array(
            'pattern' => '/\d/',
            'match'   => false,
            'message' => 'Your name cannot contain a number',
        )));
    }
}

Options

pattern

type: string [default option]

This required option is the regular expression pattern that the input will be matched against. By default, this validator will fail if the input string does not match this regular expression (via the preg_match PHP function). However, if match is set to false, then validation will fail if the input string does match this pattern.

match

type: Boolean default: true

If true (or not set), this validator will pass if the given string matches the given pattern regular expression. However, when this option is set to false, the opposite will occur: validation will pass only if the given string does not match the pattern regular expression.

message

type: string default: This value is not valid

This is the message that will be shown if this validator fails.

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