\b is an escape sequence that, as taken from the docs: "Specifies a boundary defined by a transition from an alphanumeric character to a nonalphanumeric character, or from a nonalphanumeric character to an alphanumeric character."
Since you're passing in "Dr|", the pipe character matches, as it is a transition from an alphanumeric character to a non-alphanumeric character. Assuming that you're wanting the title to be the only thing in the field, with the exception of a possible period at the end, try something like this: <cfset var titleRegEx = "\A(Dr|Prof|Mr|Mrs|Ms|Miss)(\.)?\Z" /> On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Richard White wrote: > Hi, > > i have a function that simply tries to match a value that is being passed > in matches a title. the function is currently as follows: > > <cffunction name="isValidTitle" hint="is passed a value, and checks to > ensure that it is either M or F, and either returns true or the error"> > <cfargument name="value" type="any" required="true"> > > <!--- declare the regaulr expression set ---> > <cfset var titleRegEx = "\b(Dr|Prof|Mr|Mrs|Ms|Miss)\b"> <!--- allowable > ---> > <cfset var regExMatchArray = rematchnocase(titleRegEx,value)> > > <!--- looks through the string to find m or f, if everything is ok then it > returns a number 1 greater than the length of the value, else it returns the > position of the character in the value that it fails on ---> > <cfif arraylen(regExMatchArray) eq 0 or len(regExMatchArray[1]) neq > len(value)> > <cfreturn "Invalid Title: #value# (Valid Title: > Dr,Prof,Mr,Mrs,Ms,Miss)"> > <cfelse> > <cfreturn true> > </cfif> > > </cffunction> > > i have been looking at various regex tutorials about options, and also > looked the the very useful regex tutorial site: > http://www.regular-expressions.info/alternation.html > > but the problem i am having is that it will match any pattern including the > pipe, so if i type in Dr| then it will return true. however i want it to > return false, i cannot seem to find anywhere that tells me how to deal with > this > > i would appreciate any feedback > > thanks > > richard > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313953 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
