Splunk Search

Regex error

Puzzle2011
Engager

I am trying to validate that the user has entered their phone number in this format (555) 555-5555. I keep getting this error: Unmatched ) in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/[([0-9]) <-- HERE ]+[[0-9]-]+[[0-9]+/ at validate.cgi line 46. My code is below. Any help?

sub validate_input {
my $valid = "Y";
my $errormsg;
if ($phone !~ m/[([0-9])]+[[0-9]-]+[[0-9]+/]) {
$valid = "N";
my $errormsg = "enter a valid phone number in format desired.";
}
return $valid, $errormsg;
}

Tags (2)
0 Karma
1 Solution

tpflicke
Path Finder

The characters ( and ) in regex are used for grouping so you need to escape them if you want to match literally.
You can also use \d for digit, I find it more readable than [0-9].
Try

m/\(\d\d\d\)\s*\d\d\d-\d\d\d\d/ 
m/\(\d{3}\)\s*\d{3}-\d{4}/
m/\(\d+\)\s*\d+-\d+/

depending on whether you want to exactly match the number of digits and preference of style.

View solution in original post

tpflicke
Path Finder

The characters ( and ) in regex are used for grouping so you need to escape them if you want to match literally.
You can also use \d for digit, I find it more readable than [0-9].
Try

m/\(\d\d\d\)\s*\d\d\d-\d\d\d\d/ 
m/\(\d{3}\)\s*\d{3}-\d{4}/
m/\(\d+\)\s*\d+-\d+/

depending on whether you want to exactly match the number of digits and preference of style.

Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Make Your Machine Data AI-Ready in Splunk

Every team is getting ready for AI agents.   Thursday, November 12, 2026  |  11AM  PST / 2PM EST   ...

Splunk Asynchronous Forwarding Explained

Splunk asynchronous forwarding is often misunderstood as simply setting autoLBVolume. That is not quite right. ...

How to Monitor AI Agents with Splunk Agent Observability

Let’s say I’m running a travel planning AI app in production. A user asks for three concise hotel options in ...