Regular expression to validate employee id

user_16520867 0
Viewed 281

I want a regular expression to validate employee ids which are UC-00001, UC-00012, UC-000100. etc

"UC-000" is constant but after that if one digit number exist it becomes UC-00001 and if more den one digit exist then only three zeros needs to be constant.(UC-00010)

I tried using preg_match(/[U]{1}[C]{1}-[0]{3}[0-9]$/) but its not validating properly.

Thanks in advance

preg-match php regex
2 Answers

You can match three zeroes and then either from 00 to 09 or from 10 up..

^UC-000(?:0\d|[1-9]\d*)$

The pattern matches:

  • ^ Start of string
  • UC-000 Match literally
  • (?: Non capture group
    • 0\d Match 0 and a single digit 0-9 (Or use [1-9] to not match 00000)
    • | Or
    • [1-9]\d* Match a digit 1-9 and optional digits
  • ) Close non capture group
  • $ End of string

Regex demo

$strings = [
    "UC-00001",
    "UC-00012",
    "UC-000100",
    "UC-00001",
    "UC-00010",
    "UC-00000",
    "UC-000010",
    "UC-0000100"
];
$pattern = "~^UC-000(?:0\d|[1-9]\d*)$~";
foreach ($strings as $s) {
    if (preg_match($pattern, $s)) {
        echo "Match: $s" . PHP_EOL;
    } else {
        echo "Not match: $s" . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Output

Match: UC-00001
Match: UC-00012
Match: UC-000100
Match: UC-00001
Match: UC-00010
Match: UC-00000
Not match: UC-000010
Not match: UC-0000100
user_54249880

Your pattern is logically correct, save that you didn't allow for multiple digits after the leading 000. I would use this version:

^UC-[0-9]{5,}$

PHP script:

$input = "UC-000100";
if (preg_match("/^UC-[0-9]{5,}$/", $input)) {
    echo "VALID";
}
user_18632290
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