This particularly bad example of regular expressions and client side validation was originally published in 2009. I thought Australia was supposed to be upside down, not bass ackwards. - Remy

"The company I work for sells vacation packages for Australia," writes Nathan, "and for whatever reason, they're marketed under different two different brands — redacted-travel.com.au and redacted-travel.com — depending on whether you live Down Under or somewhere else in the world."

Nathan continues, "one of the requirements for the international website (redacted-travel.com) is to disallow people from within Australia and New Zealand to make bookings. But the way this is done from the front end... well, it's a real gem."


/**
  *Checks to see if Australia is typed into the other country box
  */
  function checkContactCountry(inputBox)
  {
    var validator = new RegExp(
         /^(A|a)(U|u)(S|s)(T|t)(R|r)(A|a)(L|l)(I|i)(A|a)
          |(N|n)(E|e)(W|w)(Z|z)(E|e)(A|a)(L|l)(A|a)(N|n)(D|d)
          |(N|n)(E|e)(W|w) (Z|z)(E|e)(A|a)(L|l)(A|a)(N|n)(D|d)$/);

    if(validator.test(inputBox.value))
    {
         alert("Your Residential Address must be outside Australia. "
             + "Enter your residential address outside this country,"
             + "or visit redacted-travel.com.au to make a booking if "
             + " you live in Australia.");
         inputBox.focus();
         inputBox.select();                  
    }
 }
 
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