php regex, extract phone numbers from string?

Question

i am having a small problem with my regex which i use to extract phone numbers from a strong

<?php
$output = "here 718-838-3586 there 1052202932 asdas dasdasd 800-308-4653 dasdasdasd 866-641-6949800-871-0999";
preg_match_all('/\b[0-9]{3}\s*[-]?\s*[0-9]{3}\s*[-]?\s*[0-9]{4}\b/',$output,$matches);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($matches[0]);
?>

output

Array
(
            [0] => 718-838-3586
            [1] => 1052202932
            [2] => 800-308-4653
            [3] => 866-641-6949
            [4] => 800-871-0999

)

this work fine but it returns 1052202932 as one of result which i don't need .
actually i don't know where is the missing part in my pattern .

Your pattern? Did you write it? Then just make the dashes not optional again. — mario
– mario, Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 22:10

Andrew Clark · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-24 22:15:45Z

2

The ? after each [-] is making the - optional. If you want it to be required you can just remove the ? which will make it required. Also, [-] is equivalent to - so I got rid of the unnecessary character class:

preg_match_all('/\b[0-9]{3}\s*-\s*[0-9]{3}\s*-\s*[0-9]{4}\b/',$output,$matches);

You can also replace all of the [0-9] with \d to shorten it a bit further:

preg_match_all('/\b\d{3}\s*-\s*\d{3}\s*-\s*\d{4}\b/',$output,$matches);

answered Jun 24, 2013 at 22:15

Andrew Clark

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Comments

Mark Basmayor · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-24 22:20:45Z

2

? in regex means {0,1} and you need exactly 1 occurence of '-' in your pattern

preg_match_all('/\b[0-9]{3}\s*-\s*[0-9]{3}\s*-\s*[0-9]{4}\b/',$output,$matches);

For more info http://www.php.net/manual/en/regexp.reference.repetition.php

edited Jun 24, 2013 at 22:20

answered Jun 24, 2013 at 22:13

Mark Basmayor

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3 Comments

Andrew Clark Over a year ago

+ is not the same as {1}, it is the same as {1,}. (so this would match 123----456----7890)

Mark Basmayor Over a year ago

there fixed, slight error to merit a down vote wouldn't you think

Andrew Clark Over a year ago

Not really, I have never seen a phone number with multiple adjacent dashes.

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