Phone number regex PHP
The regular expressions below can be used to validate if a string is a valid phone number format and to extract a phone number from a string. Please note that this validation can not tell if a phone number actually exists.
The basic international phone number validation
A simple regex to validate string against a valid international phone number format without delimiters and with an optional plus sign:
"/^\\+?[1-9][0-9]{7,14}$/"
Enter a text in the input above to see the result
Example code in PHP
// Validate phone number
$phone_number_validation_regex = "/^\\+?[1-9][0-9]{7,14}$/";
echo preg_match($phone_number_validation_regex, '+12223334444'); // returns 1
// Extract phone number from a string
$extract_phone_number_pattern = "/\\+?[1-9][0-9]{7,14}/";
$string_to_match = 'You can reach me out at +12223334444 and +56667778888';
preg_match_all($extract_phone_number_pattern, $string_to_match, $matches);
// matches[0] is ['+12223334444', '+56667778888']
The more complex phone number validation
This regular expression will match phone numbers entered with delimiters (spaces, dots, brackets, etc.)
"/^\\+?\\d{1,4}?[-.\\s]?\\(?\\d{1,3}?\\)?[-.\\s]?\\d{1,4}[-.\\s]?\\d{1,4}[-.\\s]?\\d{1,9}$/"Enter a text in the input above to see the result
Example code in PHP
// Validate phone number
$phone_number_validation_regex = "/^\\+?\\d{1,4}?[-.\\s]?\\(?\\d{1,3}?\\)?[-.\\s]?\\d{1,4}[-.\\s]?\\d{1,4}[-.\\s]?\\d{1,9}$/";
echo preg_match($phone_number_validation_regex, '+1 (615) 243-5172'); // returns 1
Extra information about validating phone number
While validation of phone numbers using regex can give a possibility to check the format of the phone number, it does not guarantee that the number exists.
There might be also an option to leave a phone number field without any validation since some users might have:
- More complex phone numbers with extensions
- The different phone numbers for calling them on a different time of day
