VIN Validation RegEx

Question

I have written a VIN validation RegEx based on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_identification_number but then when I try to run some tests it is not accepting some valid VIN Numbers.

My RegEx:

^[A-HJ-NPR-Za-hj-npr-z\\d]{8}[\\dX][A-HJ-NPR-Za-hj-npr-z\\d]{2}\\d{6}$

VIN Number Not Working:
1ftfw1et4bfc45903
WP0ZZZ99ZTS392124

VIN Numbers Working:
19uya31581l000000
1hwa31aa5ae006086

(I think the problem occurs with the numbers at the end, Wikipedia made it sound like it would end with only 6 numbers and the one that is not working but is a valid number only ends with 5)

Any Help Correcting this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

I can't help you with a perfect regex for VIN numbers -- but I can explain why this one is failing in your example of 1ftfw1et4bfc45903:

^[A-HJ-NPR-Za-hj-npr-z\d]{8}[\dX][A-HJ-NPR-Za-hj-npr-z\d]{2}\d{6}$

Explanation:

• ^[A-HJ-NPR-Za-hj-npr-z\d]{8}
  This allows for 8 characters, composed of any digits and any letters except I, O, and Q; it properly finds the first 8 characters:
  1ftfw1et
• [\dX]
  This allows for 1 character, either a digit or a capital X; it properly finds the next character:
  4
• [A-HJ-NPR-Za-hj-npr-z\d]{2}
  This allows for 2 characters, composed of any digits and any letters except I, O, and Q; it properly finds the next 2 characters:
  bf
• \d{6}$
  This allows for exactly 6 digits, and is the reason the regex fails; because the final 6 characters are not all digits:
  c45903