i am using php in order to validate a form where users register. please help me to solve the following validations. 1. name can have spaces. ex= john smith presently the validation i am using is if( $fname == "" || !eregi("^[a-zA-Z_]+$", $fname) ) i need the syntax which would accept a-zA-Z WITH A SPACE IN BETWEEN NAMES ex= john smith 2. text can have spaces and special characters ex= ref 100/abcd presently the validation i am using is if( $depositnumber == "" || !eregi("^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$", $depositnumber) ) i need the syntax which would accept a-zA-Z0-9 WITH A SPACE IN BETWEEN AND SPECIAL CHARACTERS ex= ref 100/abcd 3. spaces in numbers. ex= 123 4567 presently the validation i am using is if( $phonenumber == "" || !eregi("^[0-9]+$", $phonenumber) ) i need the syntax which would accept 0-9 WITH A SPACE IN BETWEEN ex= 123 4567 4. in case of [a-zA-Z0-9_] if i remove the "_" after 9 will it have a negative impact or is this a syntax due to which i should i leave the "_" as part of [a-zA-Z0-9_] 5. using stripslashes() function due to the above validation there is no way a user can enter special characters which could lead to sql injection. inspite of this should i still use stripslashes to be on the safe side. please provide the exact syntax for the above validations to works as specified for different scenarios. thanks.