Phone number regex Python
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}$"
Enter a text in the input above to see the result
Example code in Python
# Validate phone number
import re
validate_phone_number_pattern = "^\\+?[1-9][0-9]{7,14}$"
re.match(validate_phone_number_pattern, "+12223334444") # Returns Match object
# Extract phone number from a string
extract_phone_number_pattern = "\\+?[1-9][0-9]{7,14}"
re.findall(extract_phone_number_pattern, 'You can reach me out at +12223334444 and +56667778888') # returns ['+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}$"Enter a text in the input above to see the result
Example code in Python
# Validate phone number
import re
validate_phone_number_pattern = "^\\+?\\d{1,4}?[-.\\s]?\\(?\\d{1,3}?\\)?[-.\\s]?\\d{1,4}[-.\\s]?\\d{1,4}[-.\\s]?\\d{1,9}$"
re.match(validate_phone_number_pattern, "+1 (615) 243-5172") # Returns Match object
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
