Andy Jarrett // Code. Develop. Create.

Using RegEx to cut down on code

I sometimes forget how useful/powerful RegEx can be. Take the following bit of CFIF logic

[sourcecode language="plain"]<cfset username = trim(form.uname) /><cfif len(username) LT 4> <cfset errorMsg = "Your username is too short" /><cfelseif NOT reFindNoCase("[\\w]", username, 1, "false")> <cfset errorMsg = "Your username is too short" /></cfif>[/sourcecode]

A quick regex guide: the "\\w" reference stands for "word character", which translates to [A-Za-z0-9_] n.b.the underscore as well

You can actually add on to the regex and at the same time cut down a lot of the logic by doing the following:

[sourcecode language="plain" gutter="true" toolbar="true" wraplines="true"]<cfif NOT refindnocase("[\\w]{4,}", username, 1, "false")> <cfset errorMsg = "Usernames must be 4 characters in length and contain [A-Za-z 0-9 _" /></cfif>[/sourcecode]

The key is "{4,}". Using the curly braces to specify a specific amount of repetition of "word characters" and is equivilant to "len(username) LT 4"


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