I'm trying to make a javascript function with a regex, that will validate a phone number.

the rules are :
1. numbers only. 2. more then 10 numbers. 3. a dash ( - ) is allowed (optional).

first, I tried this one :

  function validatePhone(phone) {

        var phoneReg = /[0-9]{10,}/;
        return (phoneReg.test(phone));
    }

it worked well only on the first 2 rules, but not with the dash.

Then I tried var phoneReg = /[-0-9]{10,}/; and even var phoneReg = [\d]+\-?[\d]+ but then the javascript was broken...

any thoughts ?

I'm trying to make a javascript function with a regex, that will validate a phone number.

the rules are :
1. numbers only. 2. more then 10 numbers. 3. a dash ( - ) is allowed (optional).

first, I tried this one :

  function validatePhone(phone) {

        var phoneReg = /[0-9]{10,}/;
        return (phoneReg.test(phone));
    }

it worked well only on the first 2 rules, but not with the dash.

Then I tried var phoneReg = /[-0-9]{10,}/; and even var phoneReg = [\d]+\-?[\d]+ but then the javascript was broken...

any thoughts ?

• javascript
• regex

Share Follow asked Sep 27, 2012 at 14:59 thormayerthormayer 1,07066 gold badges2929 silver badges4949 bronze badges 4

• 3 "I'm trying to make a javascript function with a regex, that will validate a phone number." That's your first mistake. :-) Even in the U.S., phone numbers can be plex (extensions and whatnot), and if you're dealing with anything that crosses country lines, all bets are off. Usually best to let people write what they write, make sure it's not blank, and have them double-check. FWIW. – T.J. Crowder Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 15:01
• @T.J.Crowder thanks man, but its only in my country. which is very particular . thanks again for the concern. – thormayer Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 15:06
• stackoverflow./questions/123559/… – jbabey Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 15:11
• @thormayer: You don't have extensions in your country? E.g., Work number: [01234567891 ext 332]? – T.J. Crowder Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 16:20

Add a ment  | 

2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 3

This is how I would approach phone number validation:

var validatePhone = function(phone) {

  // Stip everything but the digits.
  // People like to format phone numbers in all
  // sorts of ways so we shouldn't plain
  // about any of the formatting, just ensure the
  // right number of digits exist.
  phone = phone.replace(/\D/g, '');

  // They should have entered 10-14 digits.
  // 10 digits would be sans-country code,
  // 14 would be the longest possible country code of 4 digits.
  // Return `false` if the digit range isn't met.
  if (!phone.match(/\d{10,14}/)) return false;

  // If they entered 10, they have left out the country code.
  // For this example we'll assume the US code of '1'.
  if (phone.length === 10) phone = '1' + phone;

  // This is a valid number, return the stripped number
  // for reformatting and/or database storage.
  return phone;
}

This should work. The - character needs to be escaped.

var phoneReg = /[0-9-\-]{11,}/;

The potential problem with this, is that strings that have multiple dashes will test positive even when 10 numbers aren't in the string. I would suggest replacing dashes before testing.

var phoneReg = /[0-9]{11,}/;
return (phoneReg.test(phone.replace(/\-/g, ''));