Validating form by function

Question

Hi,
i try to validate my form (items in them) with functions wich returns 1 or 0.
Here is one of the function:
create or replace
function firmennamecheck(        p_firmenname IN VARCHAR2
) return NUMBER
as
l_firmenname VARCHAR2(255);
BEGIN
l_firmenname := p_firmenname;
IF regexp_like(l_firmenname, '^[[:alnum:][:space:]]{2,80}$') OR l_firmenname IS NULL THEN
  RETURN 1;                                                                      
ELSE
  RETURN 0;
END IF;
end firmennamecheck; My problem is the whitespace. If I give an input of one whitespace in the text field, they returns 0 (this is ok!),
but if I insert more then one whitespaces in the text field, they also say, its ok!
Example:
' ' = no error message. (a big problem for mandatory items!)
'XYZ Inc' = no error message (how I want it!)
If I Use this expression:^[[:alnum:]]{2,80}$ then it's not more possible to insert text like 'XYZ Inc', because there is a whitespace.

Answer 1

Hi David,
so this is a form where user can register on my website. In this case it is a "dealer". They give information about comanpy name, first name, last name.....
And I want to validate this form.
Company name is "Name Ihrer Firma" and could contain numbers and letters.
In this case I use this Exp. '^[[:alnum:][:space:]]{2,80}$'.
Now its possible to type in letters and numbers also whitespace characters.
But the problem are the whitespace characters!
The user can type in a company name like " ". Just full of whitespaces! and the validation says "its okay!" and submit the page and the data gets inserted in the user table.
Result Example:
select * from user: shows me the user with a company name full of whitespace charactes!
Requirements:
1. Numbers, Letters and Whitespace charecters are allowed
2. Whitespaces not at the begin of the textfield
3. Only typing whitespaces without letters are not allowed!
David Gale I try your code, but its not working on the first time :-/
I think You forgot some [] more.
The finish reg. '^[[:alnum:]]{4,40}([[:space:][:alnum:]]{1,40})*$'But somethink works not fine. maximal 40 characters are allowed. I test it and type more then 40 characters in, sumbit it and without an error messages. :-/ this means, that the reg. is not 100% right! but whats wrong in the code?
Edited by: Mr.Nedo on 06.04.2011 05:56