Regex for a date or a string

In the process of testing many regex expressions, I notices that when entering the following expression:
/((([\d ][\d ][\d ][1-9])|([1-9][\d ][\d ][\d ])|([\d ][1-9][\d ][\d ])|([\d ][\d ][1-9][\d ]))-((0[13578])|(1[02]))-((0[1-9])|([12][\d ])|(3[01])))|((([\d ][\d ][\d ][1-9])|([1-9][\d ][\d ][\d ])|([\d ][1-9][\d ][\d ])|([\d ][\d ][1-9][\d ]))-((0[469])|11)-((0[1-9])|([12][\d ])|(30)))|(((000[48])|([\d ]\d )|([\d ][1-9][02468][048])|([1-9][\d ][02468][048])|([\d ]\d )|([\d ][1-9][13579][26])|([1-9][\d ][13579][26]))-02-((0[1-9])|([12][\d ])))|((([\d ][\d ][\d ][1-9])|([1-9][\d ][\d ][\d ])|([\d ][1-9][\d ][\d ])|([\d ][\d ][1-9][\d ]))-02-((0[1-9])|([1][\d ])|([2][0-8])))/

I had the message “Your information has been updated”, but this was not the case (the previous/old expression was still kept after updating). The expression was ok when checked with https://regex101.com

Any reason for that behavior ?

Thanks

I finally decided to use the expression:
^(((19|20)dd)|9999)-(0[12)]|1[012])-(0[1-9]|[12]d|3[01])$

If the year 9999 is entered, it means that the information is not available.

Before closing the ticket, I would like to know if there is a max length for the expression when used with Participants Database (please see the previous post)?

Thanks,

Gaston

You can go up to 255 characters, but you can raise that limit if you need.

Do you think that the actual 255 limit is the reason for not taking the new expression, even if it says that it did change it (“Your information has been updated”)? Where do I change the limit ?

Thanks

How do you know it didn’t take the change? Your regex doesn’t look like it’s too long. If it’s because it doesn’t work, I’d suggest testing the regex on this page, it will explain in detail how your regex works and help you make sure it’s correct.

https://regex101.com/

As I said in the second post

“I had the message “Your information has been updated”, but this was not the case (the previous/old expression was still kept after updating). The expression was ok when checked with https://regex101.com”

I just tested again the expression in both environments, and the result is the same:
-the expression is accepted on regex101.com
-the expression is said accepted by Participants Database, but is not retained, the previous expression being still kept in the field.

Gaston

OK, are other changes to the field retained?

I see the issue: that expression is 579 characters long, so you’ll need to change the datatype in the database so that such a long expression can be saved. I changed it from TINYTEXT to TEXT here, and it saved the value.

Open the database in phpMyAdmin (or similar) and look at the structure of the participants_database_fields table. The “validation” column is where you change the datatype.

Thank you very much for pointing out what caused this problem. If possible a future version could check if an update was really performed.

Thanks again.

Good point, I’ve got this fixed in the upcoming release.