Regular Expression working on regexr but not in PHP

Hello, i want to use regex to validate the coupon format. I wrote the rules on regexr.com and it worked fine but not in php.

The expression i have: ([0-9]{3})+(-)+([0-9A-Z]{3})+(-)+([A-Z]{3})

Coupon format:

230-4WE-GAG

424-423-NJB

Basically the first 3 digits are numbers followed by a dash then 3 alphanumeric digits followed by a dash and at the end 3 characters

And the code i have:

PHP Code:

if (preg_match('/([0-9]{3})+(-)+([0-9A-Z]{3})+(-)+([A-Z]{3})/', $coupon)) {            
     $coupon_data = $this->coupons->check_coupon($coupon);
     $this->response($coupon_data, 200);
} 


(i'm using the rest library)

I know that PHP treats regex a little bit different but in which way?

The regex in your php code is not the same regex you posted in "The expression i have". Check the parenthesis. You're missing some.

I think you should append and prepend '#' in your string instead of '/'

NexoPOS 2.6.2 available on CodeCanyon.

Yeah I missed it

NexoPOS 2.6.2 available on CodeCanyon.

The regex in your php code is not the same regex you posted in "The expression i have". Check the parenthesis. You're missing some.

Sorry, i made a little mistake as i was pasting this on the forum. The expression is exactly the same.

Try

PHP Code:

preg_match('/[0-9]{3}-[A-Z0-9]{3}-[A-Z]{3}/', $coupon) 


3 digits
followed by dash
followed by mixture of 3 digits and/or A-Z chars
followed by dash
followed by 3 chars A-Z

Try

PHP Code:

preg_match('/[0-9]{3}-[A-Z0-9]{3}-[A-Z]{3}/', $coupon) 


3 digits
followed by dash
followed by mixture of 3 digits and/or A-Z chars
followed by dash
followed by 3 chars A-Z

It worked perfectly. So. php doesn't like the ()?