Posted by Bosconian on 02/13/07 19:26

"Captain Paralytic" <paul_lautman@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1171375105.711530.30600@q2g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> On 13 Feb, 13:36, "Bosconian" <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
>> "Captain Paralytic" <paul_laut...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:1171364086.554958.149070@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > On 13 Feb, 04:06, "Bosconian" <nob...@nowhere.com> wrote:
>> >> I have a textarea form field for inputting (or pasting) pairs of data.
>>
>> >> I need a regular expression pattern to validate each line for the
>> >> following
>>
>> >> double quote
>> >> number
>> >> double quote
>> >> comma
>> >> double quote
>> >> alpha string
>> >> double quote
>> >> carriage return
>>
>> >> The following comes close, but doesn't check for a carriage return at
>> >> the
>> >> end of each line:
>>
>> >> ^"([0-9]?)+"([,]\s?\"([A-Za-z0-9]+)")*$
>>
>> >> For example the following would return true:
>>
>> >> "1","John"
>> >> "2","Paul"
>> >> "3","George"
>> >> "4","Ringo"
>>
>> >> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>>
>> > The ? following [0-9] means that
>> > "","John" will also be matched.
>> > Also, the * before the $ means that
>> > "1" will be matched
>> > So at the very least you want
>> > ^"[0-9]+"([,]\s?\"([A-Za-z0-9]+)")$
>> > Since a $ means "the end of the line" and since a carriage return
>> > signifies the end of a line, his should do. Or do you want to ensure
>> > that there is a carriage return at theend, even if there is only one
>> > line?
>>
>> Thank you for your response and for the pattern corrections.
>>
>> A trailing carriage return on the last line would be unnecessary and
>> ignored
>> if present. However, any preceding pairs must have a carriage return at
>> the
>> end of each line. Where in the pattern is this mandated?
>>
>> I don't have the opportunity to use regular expressions consistency, but
>> I
>> am anxious to learn the syntax and am grateful for your instruction.-
>> Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> If you are treating each line as a separate string, then the $ will
> indicate this. If you are treating all the lines as a single string
> then I need to ask, is it only a carriage return that you will have at
> the end of each line and all you want to check for? Sometimes lines
> can be ended by a carriage return and a new line (\r\n) \nd sometimes
> by a new line only (\n). It is unusual for a line to have only a
> carriage return on its own (\r) as, on older printers, this would lead
> to the next line overtyping the previous one.
>

Yes, I assume we're talking about \n or \r\n.

Incidentally, I would like to support several methods of entry. My idea is
to have the user select a radio button for the format. For example,
optionally the user could input

1,John
2,Paul
3,George
4,Ringo

1,John,2,Paul,3,George,4,Ringo

I eventually want it to work the same was as phpMyAdmin's import feature.
However, this will be used by non-tech savvy users so validation will play
an important part.

Again, thanks for your help.

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