Phone number regex PHP

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.

JavaScript
JavaScript
Python
Python
Java
Java
C#
C#
PHP
PHP

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}$/"

Test it!
/^\+?[1-9][0-9]{7,14}$/

True

False

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}$/"

Test it!
/^\+?\d{1,4}?[-.\s]?\(?\d{1,3}?\)?[-.\s]?\d{1,4}[-.\s]?\d{1,4}[-.\s]?\d{1,9}$/

True

False

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

Test it!

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

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