not allowing phone numbers

[esthera]

I have a variable that is submitted by a text box and I don't want them to be able to enter in phone numbers

my code is below but the problem is users are getting around by entering it

7 1 8 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 within the text


How can I get around this?

PHP Code:

Function checkphone(sText)
   checkphone=""
    Dim arrWords, x, curWord
    Dim sEmail, sName, sDomain
    Dim dotIndex, y
    
    'remove any extra spaces
    sText = Trim(sText)
    Do Until InStr(sText, "  ")<1
        sText = Replace(sText, "  ", " ")
    Loop
    
    'split into words
    arrWords = Split(sText, " ")
    
    'look for email, initialize return value
    sEmail = ""
    For x=0 To UBound(arrWords)
        curWord = arrWords(x)
         icurword=curword
        curword=replace(curword,"(","")
        curword=replace(curword,")","")
        curword=replace(curword,"-","")
    '    response.Write curword & "<br>"
        if isnumeric(curword) then 
           ' response.Write curwords & " is numeric<br>"
            if len(curword)>=9 then 
         '   response.Write "<hr>" & curword & " is a problem<hr>"
            checkphone=icurword
            end if    
        end if
    Next
    
    'free allocated memory
    Erase arrWords

    

    'if checkphone="" then checkphone=stext

checkphone =  DeleteThisPattern(checkphone,"\d{10}")    
    
    
End Function 


[Old Pedant]

Maybe if you told us what you *WANT* the users to enter it would be easier?

If you simply want to reject any entry that has *ONLY* (say) digits and spaces, then that's easy:

Function rejectStuff( txt )
    Set re = New RegExp
    re.Pattern = "[^\d\s]"
    rejectStuff = re.Test( txt )
End Function

If rejectStuff( Request("someFormField") ) Then
    ... idiot user ...
Else
   ... maybe okay? ...
End If

But that would still allow something like "123-456-7890" because the "-" character is neither a digit nor a space.

It's much better to say what you are *expecting* (e.g., an email address??) than what you want to reject.

[esthera]

no the users enter in full details but i'm trying to get rid of any numbers
(they are not allowed to post their phone number)

[Old Pedant]

But suppose the user enters "The gross national product of England averages 2,378,111,228 pounds per day."

???

That is a 10 digit number that looks like a phone number. What would you have the system do with it?

Or what would you do about "My phone number is eight zero zero five five five one two one two." ???

Anyway, if you simply want to reject all digits, I gave you the answer in the first post, excepting that you should remove the \s in there.

If you want to zap all digits, just use

    Set re = New RegExp
    re.Pattern = "\d"
    re.Global = True
    txt = re.Replace( txt, "" )

[Old Pedant]

Since it's unlikely that anybody would enter a 10 digit number *except* for a phone number, maybe you could do this:

txt = "I want 30 pounds of butter and 12 pounds of flour."

Set re = New RegExp
re.Pattern = "[^\d]"
re.Global = True
If Len( re.Replace( txt, "" ) ) > 6 Then
    ... reject message ... has 7 or more digits in it ...
Else
    ... has 6 or few digits, so not a phone # ... it is okay ...
End If

You can decide whether to use 6 or 9 or whatever as your cutoff point.

[felgall]

What about the phone number "eatatjohns" (which when entered into a phone will dial 3282856467)? Phone numbers don't have to be entered as numbers.

[Old Pedant]

LOL! And I thought "eight zero zero..." was a nice workaround.