start with [a-zA-Z0-9] chars following is [\w-] BUT IS OPTIONAL
/^[a-zA-Z0-9][\w-]\.[a-zA-z]+$/
I think the regex is not doing the option \w part.
Correct, it isn't. You haven't asked it to... To make it optional you need to follow the [\w-] with a count which says it is optional. The count would be in this form: {$min,$max}, where $min and $max are the minimum and maximum counts, respectively. You can leave out $max if there is no maximum count. (But you still need the comma; without it you have an _exact_ count.) So for zero or more times you need the quantifier: {0,}.
There are also three shortcut quantifiers: '*', '+', '?'. (Without the quotes.) Their meanings are:
* = {0,}
+ = {1,}
? = {0,1}
Note that all the quantifiers are 'greedy'[1]: they match the longest string of characters they possibly can.
Ok, now that we've got that over with, why aren't you using the 'validate' sub? It is likely to be faster than the above regrex...
Daniel T. Staal
[1] Well, there is a way around this. But that's another lesson.
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