(PHP 4 >= 4.0.4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
ctype_alnum — Check for alphanumeric character(s)
Checks if all of the characters in the provided string,
text, are alphanumeric.
textThe tested string.
Note:
If an int between -128 and 255 inclusive is provided, it is interpreted as the ASCII value of a single character (negative values have 256 added in order to allow characters in the Extended ASCII range). Any other integer is interpreted as a string containing the decimal digits of the integer.
Returns true if every character in text is either
a letter or a digit, false otherwise.
When called with an empty string the result will always be false.
Example #1 A ctype_alnum() example (using the default locale)
<?php
$strings = array('AbCd1zyZ9', 'foo!#$bar');
foreach ($strings as $testcase) {
if (ctype_alnum($testcase)) {
echo "The string $testcase consists of all letters or digits.\n";
} else {
echo "The string $testcase does not consist of all letters or digits.\n";
}
}
?>The above example will output:
The string AbCd1zyZ9 consists of all letters or digits. The string foo!#$bar does not consist of all letters or digits.
ctype_alnum() is a godsend for quick and easy username/data filtering when used in conjunction with str_replace().
Let's say your usernames have dash(-) and underscore(_) allowable and alphanumeric digits as well.
Instead of a regex you can trade a bit of performance for simplicity:
<?php
$sUser = 'my_username01';
$aValid = array('-', '_');
if(!ctype_alnum(str_replace($aValid, '', $sUser))) {
echo 'Your username is not properly formatted.';
}
?>It is also important to note that the behavior of `ctype_alnum` differs according to the operating system. For UNIX-based operating system, if you pass a value that is not a string (or an overloaded object), independently of the value, it will always result in false. However, if we do the same on Windows, using, for example, -1 as literal (a minus and a number greater than 0), we'll have true as result.
<?php var_dump(ctype_alnum(-1));
// UNIX: bool(false)
// Windows: bool(true)