Pattern · India 🇮🇳

Regex for IEC (Importer Exporter Code)

10-digit code for Indian exporters and importers.

The IEC (Importer Exporter Code) regex is ^[A-Z0-9]{10}$ — copy it below, or open it in the explainer for a token-by-token breakdown.

The pattern

^[A-Z0-9]{10}$

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What it matches

AAAPL1234B
0123456789
ABCDE12345

What it doesn't match

AAPL1234B
AAAPL1234BX
aaapl1234b

Notes & gotchas

IEC is issued by DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade) to anyone engaged in import/export. Since 2018, the IEC is mapped to PAN: PAN-based IEC has the same 10-character structure. Earlier IECs were purely numeric. Mandatory for clearing shipments through customs.

Code in your language

Use the explainer's Code tab to generate ready-to-paste snippets in JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, and PHP for this pattern.

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Token-by-token breakdown

Every part of the pattern, left to right:

Token	Meaning
`^`	start of string (or line in multiline mode)
`[A-Z0-9]{10}`	exactly 10 times: any of: uppercase letters, digits
`$`	end of string (or line in multiline mode)

About this pattern

India-specific identifiers are governed by various authorities (UIDAI for Aadhaar, Income Tax Dept for PAN, RBI for IFSC, GSTN for GSTIN, etc.). Regex confirms format; for definitive validation, integrate with the issuing authority's verification API.

Quick usage in different languages

This exact pattern — with the correct escaping and idioms for each language:

JavaScript: /^[A-Z0-9]{10}$/.test(value)
Python: re.match(r"^[A-Z0-9]{10}$", value)
Java: Pattern.compile("^[A-Z0-9]{10}$").matcher(value).matches()
C# / .NET: Regex.IsMatch(value, @"^[A-Z0-9]{10}$")
Go: regexp.MustCompile(`^[A-Z0-9]{10}$`).MatchString(value)
Ruby: /^[A-Z0-9]{10}$/.match?(value)
PHP: preg_match('~^[A-Z0-9]{10}$~', $value)

The explainer’s Code tab regenerates these for any pattern you paste, and the downloadable cheat sheet bundles the breakdown, all seven snippets, and the pitfalls below onto one printable page.

Common pitfalls

Anchored to the whole string. This pattern uses ^ and $, so it requires the entire input to match. To find it inside a longer text, drop the anchors and use the global (g) flag.
Uppercase only. Ranges like [A-Z] won't match lowercase. Add a-z (or the i flag) if lowercase input should be accepted.
Validate beyond format. Matching the format doesn't guarantee the value is real. Confirm the iec (importer exporter code) against a source of truth (database, API, or checksum) where it matters.

Standards & sources

This pattern is based on the following authoritative specification(s) and issuing authorities. Formats can change — always confirm against the primary source.

Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)

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