Canadian Postal Code Regex for PHP

What this pattern does

This page provides a comprehensive, battle-tested regular expression for matching canadian postal code, ported and verified for PHP. A rigorously tested regex reduces debugging time and protects your application from edge-case failures. The snippet below is ready to drop into your PHP project — whether you're validating in a Laravel validator, a WordPress plugin, or a standalone PHP script.

Php Implementation

<?php
// Canadian Postal Code
// ReDoS-safe | RegexVault — Localization > Postal Codes

define('CANADIAN_POSTAL_CODE_PATTERN', '/^([ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVXY][0-9][ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ])\s?([0-9][ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVWXYZ][0-9])$/');

function validate_canadian_postal_code(string $input): bool {
    return (bool) preg_match(CANADIAN_POSTAL_CODE_PATTERN, $input);
}

// Example
var_dump(validate_canadian_postal_code("K1A 0B1")); // bool(true)

Test Cases

When to use this pattern

This pattern is drawn from the Localization > Postal Codes category and carries a ReDoS-safe certification. That matters for PHP developers because especially relevant in PHP where PCRE backtracking limits can trigger silent failures on malicious input. RegexVault audits patterns against known backtracking attack vectors, ensuring you have the necessary context before using this regex in a high-stakes production environment.

Common Pitfalls

Technical Notes

First letter identifies the province. Invalid first letters: D, F, I, O, Q, U, W (excluded because they resemble digits in some fonts or were reserved). The letter D and I are also excluded from all positions for readability.