The most obvious problem is your chcking logic. If you want to sequentially check several things you need: sub checkit { if {} if {} if {} return; } not this (which is what you have) sub checkit { if {} elsif {} else {} return; } Your sub exits the if/elsif/else statement if $min is non zero and also $len < $min. BTW: Why you use two ifs here instead of an and to eval these two conditions is beyond me. This is fixed below: sub paramCheck # Returns "" if no error or description of problem(s). { my $lbl = shift; # Field name for error messages my $val = shift; # Value received from the CGI query my $min = shift; # Minimun length; Use >0 for required fields my $max = shift; # Maximum allowed length my $pat = shift; # Regex to validate the data against. my $msg = shift; # Explanation added to error if Regex fails. my $err = ""; # Holds error message my $len = length( $val ); if ( $min and $len < $min ) { { $err .= wes( "$lbl cannot be blank." ); } } if ( $len > $max ) { my $s = $len == 1 ? "" : "s"; $err .= wes( "$lbl is currently $len character$s; " . "; it can only be $max character$s long." ); } if ( $val !~ $pat ) { $err .= wes( "$lbl contains invalid characters; " . "it can only hold $msg." ); } return $err; } I assume you are assigning $pat as so (it won't work otherwise): $pat = m/foo/; Run this if you are unsure of what I am getting at: $pat = "m/foo/"; print "foo1\n" if "foo" =~ $pat; $pat = m/foo/; print "foo2\n" if "foo" =~ $pat; $pat = qr/foo/; print "foo3\n" if "foo" =~ m/$pat/; Passing $pat into a sub is no problem using either of the second two methods above. The first does not work period as you will see if you run it. happy coding tachyon

In reply to Re: Dynamic Regex? by tachyon
in thread Dynamic Regex? by footpad

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