Java regex to validate international phone numbers

In this regex tutorial, we will learn to validate international phone numbers based on industry-standard notation specified by ITU-T E.123

The rules and conventions used to print international phone numbers vary significantly around the world, so it’s hard to provide meaningful validation for an international phone number unless you adopt a strict format. Fortunately, there is a simple, industry-standard notation specified by ITU-T E.123. This notation requires that international phone numbers include a leading plus sign (known as the international prefix symbol), and allows only spaces to separate groups of digits.

Also thanks to the international phone numbering plan (ITU-T E.164), phone numbers cannot contain more than 15 digits. The shortest international phone numbers in use contain seven digits.

1. Regex to Validate International Phone Numbers

Regex : ^\+(?:[0-9] ?){6,14}[0-9]$

^ # Assert position at the beginning of the string.
 \+ # Match a literal "+" character.
 (?: # Group but don't capture:
 [0-9] # Match a digit.
 \\s # Match a space character
 ? # between zero and one time.
 ) # End the noncapturing group.
 {6,14} # Repeat the group between 6 and 14 times.
 [0-9] # Match a digit.
 $ # Assert position at the end of the string.

Above regular expression can be used to validate international phone numbers based on ITU-T standards. Let’s look at one example.

List phoneNumbers = new ArrayList();
phoneNumbers.add("+1 1234567890123");
phoneNumbers.add("+12 123456789");
phoneNumbers.add("+123 123456");

String regex = "^\\+(?:[0-9] ?){6,14}[0-9]$";

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);

for(String email : phoneNumbers)
{
	Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);
	System.out.println(email +" : "+ matcher.matches());
}

Output:

+1 1234567890123 : true
+12 123456789 : true
+123 123456 : true

2. Validate international phone numbers in EPP format

This regular expression follows the international phone number notation specified by the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP). EPP is a relatively recent protocol (finalized in 2004), designed for communication between domain name registries and registrars. It is used by a growing number of domain name registries, including .com, .info, .net, .org, and .us. The significance of this is that EPP-style international phone numbers are increasingly used and recognized, and therefore provide a good alternative format for storing (and validating) international phone numbers.

EPP-style phone numbers use the format +CCC.NNNNNNNNNNxEEEE, where C is the 1–3 digit country code, N is up to 14 digits, and E is the (optional) extension. The leading plus sign and the dot following the country code are required. The literal “x” character is required only if an extension is provided.

Regex : ^\+[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{4,14}(?:x.+)?$

List phoneNumbers = new ArrayList();
phoneNumbers.add("+123.123456x4444");
phoneNumbers.add("+12.1234x11");
phoneNumbers.add("+1.123456789012x123456789");

String regex = "^\\+[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{4,14}(?:x.+)?$";

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex);

for(String email : phoneNumbers)   
{
	Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(email);
	System.out.println(email +" : "+ matcher.matches());
}

Output:

+123.123456x4444 : true
+12.1234x11 : true
+1.123456789012x123456789 : true

Feel free to edit above regex and play with it to match more strict phone number formats, you have in your mind.

Happy Learning !!

Further Reading:

Java Regex for North American Phone Numbers Java Regex to Validate ISBN (International Standard Book Number) Java Regex to Validate SSN (Social Security Numbers)