regular expression php,Why does my regular expression not work in PHP?

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Match whole string in regex

(2 answers)

Closed 12 days ago.

if (!preg_match("/(?=.*\d)(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z]).{6,128}/", $password_1)) {

array_push($errors, "Password does not match the requested format");

}

The input for $password_1 is more than 128 characters, but it still results in true. But this expression works with the tag in HTML i.e.

But my doubt is: Why doesn't it work in PHP?

I could try not to use regex, and use manual if statements in php, but it feels like using this regex.

INFORMATION:

I am not good at regex. Please help me with detail.

AND:

I think that regex should match anything that is:

Text more than 6 characters, and less than 128 characters including spaces and stuff

A-Z and a-z and digits.

Special characters

I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with the whole regex. Please help!!

# Answer 1

Within your regex you are missing the start- and end-boundaries (^ and $). Your current regex will just match the first 128 characters that matches your requirements and ignores the rest: https://regex101.com/r/ZLmRHq/1

However if you add the boundaries, you get

/^(?=.*\d)(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z]).{6,128}$/

so the match should start at the beginning of the string, and end at the end of the string: https://regex101.com/r/ZLmRHq/3/