Validation

Username

Validate usernames that are 3–16 characters long and contain only letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens.

Available in

JavaScript / ECMAScript code

jsJavaScript

const re = new RegExp("^[a-zA-Z0-9_\\-]{3,16}$", "");
const input = "john_doe";
const matches = [...input.matchAll(re)];
console.log(matches.map(m => m[0]));

Uses `String.prototype.matchAll` for global iteration (Node 12+ / all modern browsers).

Python (re) code

pyPython

import re

pattern = re.compile(r"^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]{3,16}$")
input_text = "john_doe"
for m in pattern.finditer(input_text):
    print(m.group(0))

Stdlib `re` module — no third-party dependency. Works on Python 3.6+.

Go (RE2) code

goGo

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"regexp"
)

func main() {
	re := regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]{3,16}$`)
	input := `john_doe`
	for _, match := range re.FindAllString(input, -1) {
		fmt.Println(match)
	}
}

Uses `regexp.MustCompile` (panics on bad patterns at startup) and `FindAllString` for all matches.

Pattern

regexengine-agnostic

^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]{3,16}$

Raw source: ^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]{3,16}$

How it works

^ and $ anchor to the full string. The character class [a-zA-Z0-9_\-] allows letters (upper and lower), digits, underscores, and hyphens. {3,16} enforces the length range most platforms use for usernames.