在PHP中强制执行字符串格式

Question

I am taking in a string from a text field and then sending it to a mysql database with the help of php, using just one variable called '$location'.

I am taking in a "City, State" from the text field.

My question is, is there anyway to enforce the format to be "city[space]comma[space]state"? There must be a comma between the city and the state but spaces are not necessary but a user may put spaces if they feel like and state can only be two letters long.

Also a city name can have a space in it. I.e., "Myrtle Creek, OR"

Thanks.

Answer 1

It's possible with a bit of regex:

if (preg_match('/^[\w\s]+\s*?,\s*?[a-z]{2}$/i', $location)) {
  // it has city, one comma and two-letter state
}