Pattern · India 🇮🇳

Regex for PRAN (NPS account)

12-digit Permanent Retirement Account Number for NPS.

The pattern

^\d{12}$

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What it matches

110012345678
500098765432

What it doesn't match

11001234567
1100123456789
ABC012345678

Notes & gotchas

PRAN is the unique 12-digit identifier issued to every subscriber of the National Pension System (NPS) by NSDL/CRA. It remains the same across employers and is used for all NPS contributions and withdrawals. Format mirrors Aadhaar length but is distinct.

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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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

Once you've validated a candidate value matches this pattern, you'll typically use it inside your application code. Each language has its own regex syntax:

JavaScript: new RegExp(pattern).test(value) or /pattern/.test(value)
Python: re.match(pattern, value) with raw strings: r"pattern"
Java: Pattern.compile(pattern).matcher(value).matches()
C# / .NET: Regex.IsMatch(value, pattern)
Go: regexp.MustCompile(pattern).MatchString(value) — Go uses RE2 so some advanced features aren't available
Ruby: value =~ /pattern/ or pattern.match?(value)
PHP: preg_match('/pattern/', $value)

The explainer's Code tab generates these for any pattern you paste — including the right escaping and idioms for each language.

Common pitfalls

Anchors matter. The pattern starts with ^ and ends with $ — it expects the entire input to match. To find this pattern inside a longer text, remove the anchors and use the /g flag for multiple matches.
Case sensitivity. Letter ranges like [A-Z] only match uppercase. Use the i flag or [A-Za-z] for case-insensitive matching.
Escape user input. If you're building a regex from a string variable, escape regex metacharacters first to avoid bugs or injection — use RegExp.escape-equivalents in your language.
Performance. For this specific pattern the risk is low, but be cautious of nested quantifiers when adapting it — they can cause exponential backtracking on adversarial input.