Regex for Forename Surname OR Mr & Mrs Surname (or Mrs & Mrs, etc.)

Question

I'm using this regex for some basic name validation

^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*([-' ][a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*)*$

However I'd like to also allow Mr & Mrs Bobble as valid. My current regex only allows a single space between character groups and I'm not sure how to allow <space>&<space> or <space>

Try `^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*(?:(?: & |[-' ])[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*)*$`, see [demo](https://regex101.com/r/1JPnrE/1). — Wiktor Stribiżew, Nov 06 '18 at 23:46

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 06 '18 at 23:53

You may use

^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*(?:(?: & |[-' ])[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*)*$
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

See the regex demo

The non-capturing group (?: & |[-' ]) matches either a space, &, space or a -, ' or a single space. Non-capturing groups are used when the text they match won't be accessed after the match is found, so, in this case, all groups should be non-capturing: (?: & |[-' ]) groups two alternatives with the | alternation operator and (?:(?: & |[-' ])[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z]*) groups a quantified sequence of patterns.

If you mean to match any whitespace, replace the literal spaces in the pattern with \s.

Regex for Forename Surname OR Mr & Mrs Surname (or Mrs & Mrs, etc.)

1 Answers1