Which validation rule to use for a float with Laravel 4?

Question

I have a form with two text inputs that must be floats (specifically, these text inputs are for geographic coordinates), looked at the documentation and found a rule for integer and numeric but not for float.

I was thinking using the "numeric" because the text inputs are disabled and the value only changes when a marker on a map is moved.

What would be the best way to validate a float?

Answer 1

You may use a regular expression rule (regex:pattern) for this and since you want to use to validate Geographic Coordinates then you should use a regular expression rule because a Geo Coord may look something like 23.710085, 90.406966, which is the coordinates (lat long) of Dhaka Bangladesh and it also may contain a coordinates like -33.805789,151.002060. So here is the syntax:

$rules = array('form_field_name' => 'required|regex:pattern' );

Or maybe just

$rules = array('form_field_name' => 'regex:pattern' );

So, the pattern should be something like this /^[+-]?\d+\.\d+, ?[+-]?\d+\.\d+$/. So, finally, it should look something like this (pattern is copied from internet):

$rules = array('form_field_name' => 'regex:/^[+-]?\d+\.\d+, ?[+-]?\d+\.\d+$/');

Check the Laravel Validation (regex).