validate dots and comma with regex ruby 1.9.2

Question

I have this regex in my model post:

validates_format_of :description, :username, :with => /^(?:[^\W_]|\s)*$/u, :message => "should only contain letters, numbers, or .,-_@"

But this regex does not allow dots "." and commas ",".

I want allow add this characters to this regex.

How can I allow that this regex works fine for fields like username or textareas for validate letters, numbers, commas, dots...etc

Note that in Ruby, `^` and `$` mean "start of line" and "end of line" rather than "start of string" and "end of string"; so your regex actually matches any string that contains *at least one line* with only letters and numbers and whitespace. — ruakh, Jan 19 '12 at 16:01
What @ruakh says is important, you'll want to use `\A` and `\Z` to anchor to the beginning and end of the string — Gareth, Jan 19 '12 at 19:11

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '12 at 16:01

2

validates_format_of :description, :username, :with => /^(?:[^\W_]|\s|[\.,_@])*$/u, :message => "should only contain letters, numbers, or .,-_@"

answered Jan 19 '12 at 16:01

PinnyM

1

Note that this regex can be simplified significantly: it's equivalent to `/^[\w\s.,@]*$/u`. – ruakh Jan 19 '12 at 16:15
1

And it should be anchored with `\A` and `\z`. – Phrogz Jan 19 '12 at 19:11

1 Answers1