Converting Phone Numbers, Fax Numbers, and Zip Codes for Input into a Database

Question

Converting Phone Numbers, Fax Numbers, and Zip Codes for Input into a Database

I'm facing an issue with masked inputs for Phone, Fax, and Zip Code on my webpage. The Phone and Fax numbers are currently formatted as (999) 999-9999, while the Zip Code is in the format 99999-9999. However, when I submit the page, the database requires a different format for these fields. Specifically, Phone and Fax should be in the format 1234567890, and the Zip Code should be in the format 123456789 (although it doesn't need to include all 9 digits).

I need to convert these formats before passing them into an SQL INSERT statement. How can I achieve this conversion from the displayed format on the webpage to the required format by the database?

Here is a jsFiddle that demonstrates the issue. It includes a button that appends results in a div, similar to how the actual Submit button functions on my page.

Currently, the code snippet in the jsFiddle looks like this:

<label>Phone: </label><input type="text" id="phone" placeholder="(555) 555-5555" />
<label>Fax: </label><input type="text" id="fax" placeholder="(555) 555-5555" />
<label>Zip Code: </label><input type="text" id="zipcode" placeholder="Zip Code" />

$('#phone').mask('(999) 999-9999');
$('#fax').mask('(999) 999-9999');
$('#zipcode').mask('99999-9999');

Although I have names assigned to the inputs for POSTing values, I omitted them in this example for simplicity. Should I handle the conversion using jQuery or PHP? I believe PHP might be more suitable, but I am unsure about the implementation.

If you require any additional information, please feel free to ask.

php jquery sql maskedinput

Answer 1

Answer №1

Using masked inputs can be helpful for validation and user interface, but it's important to remove any "meta" characters in the string (which seems necessary for your database). Here are two different approaches:

In PHP (recommended method with minimal user interaction):

// Perform server-side cleansing
$param = preg_replace('/([^d])/', '', $param);

In JavaScript:

// Perform client-side cleansing
param = param.replace(/([^\d])/g,'');

After removing other characters, you will end up with 1234567890 for a phone number like (123) 456-7890, and 123456789 for a zip code like 12345-6789. You may also want to check that the length equals 10 for phones and 9 or 5 for zips after the cleansing process. For example:

// Note: I am not checking `$_POST` here, but you should...
$phone = preg_replace('/([^\d])/', '', $_POST['phone']);
$fax   = preg_replace('/([^\d])/', '', $_POST['fax']);
$zip   = preg_replace('/([^\d])/', '', $_POST['zip']);

if (strlen($phone) == 10
  && strlen($fax) == 10
  && (strlen($fax) == 5 || strlen($fax) == 9)){
  // Proceed with inserting the cleaned values into the database;
  // they are now sanitized and of correct lengths.
}

Updated Fiddle Link

Answer 2

Using masked inputs can be helpful for validation and user interface, but it's important to remove any "meta" characters in the string (which seems necessary for your database). Here are two different approaches:

In PHP (recommended method with minimal user interaction):

// Perform server-side cleansing
$param = preg_replace('/([^d])/', '', $param);

In JavaScript:

// Perform client-side cleansing
param = param.replace(/([^\d])/g,'');

After removing other characters, you will end up with 1234567890 for a phone number like (123) 456-7890, and 123456789 for a zip code like 12345-6789. You may also want to check that the length equals 10 for phones and 9 or 5 for zips after the cleansing process. For example:

// Note: I am not checking `$_POST` here, but you should...
$phone = preg_replace('/([^\d])/', '', $_POST['phone']);
$fax   = preg_replace('/([^\d])/', '', $_POST['fax']);
$zip   = preg_replace('/([^\d])/', '', $_POST['zip']);

if (strlen($phone) == 10
  && strlen($fax) == 10
  && (strlen($fax) == 5 || strlen($fax) == 9)){
  // Proceed with inserting the cleaned values into the database;
  // they are now sanitized and of correct lengths.
}

Updated Fiddle Link

Converting Phone Numbers, Fax Numbers, and Zip Codes for Input into a Database

Answer №1

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