php-regexHow to format a phone number using regex in PHP?

Using regex in PHP to format a phone number is a useful way to ensure that the phone number is in the correct format. The following example code block will format a phone number in the format of (xxx) xxx-xxxx:

$phone_number = "1234567890";
$formatted_phone_number = preg_replace("/([0-9]{3})([0-9]{3})([0-9]{4})/", "($1) $2-$3", $phone_number);
echo $formatted_phone_number;

The output of the example code will be:

(123) 456-7890

Code explanation

• $phone_number = "1234567890";: This is the original phone number that will be formatted.
• $formatted_phone_number = preg_replace("/([0-9]{3})([0-9]{3})([0-9]{4})/", "($1) $2-$3", $phone_number);: This is the regex expression that will be used to format the phone number. The expression looks for 3 digits, followed by 3 digits, followed by 4 digits. The parentheses and hyphens are added to the expression to format the phone number.
• echo $formatted_phone_number;: This will output the formatted phone number.

Helpful links

• PHP Regex
• Regular Expressions Tutorial

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