Regex matching if maximum two occurrences of dot and dash

Question

I need a regular expression that will match any string containing at most 2 dashes and 2 dots. There does not HAVE to be a dash nor a dot, but if there is 3+ dashes or

Answer 1

This tested regex will do the trick:

$re = '/# Match string with 2 or fewer dots or dashes
    ^                            # Anchor to start of string.
    (?=[^.]*(?:\.[^.]*){0,2}$)   # Assert 2 or fewer dots.
    (?=[^\-]*(?:-[^\-]*){0,2}$)  # Assert 2 or fewer dashes.
    .*                           # Ok to match string.
    $                            # Anchor to end of string.
    /sx';