Question About Validation Class

[eluser]gedev2006[/eluser]
Hi

I know you can set rules to the validation class as such:

$rules['item_name'] = "trim|alpha"

and so forth

WHat i need to have is a field that allows alpha_dash, and allow the bracket symbols ().But the only way i can get the brackets in is alpha or alpha_numeric but then the alpha_dash doesnt work correctly

any ideas?

cheers

g