Validation of Credit Card Numbers
The last digit in a credit card number is what is called a checksum. It
is chosen so that a value derived from the credit card number is evenly
divisible by 10.
The other digits represent the credit card company, the bank that
issued the card, and the customer account number.
Here are some rules for 3 different types of credit cards. We will only
consider these types of cards.
Card
|
Prefix
|
Length of Credit Card
Number
|
Visa
|
4
|
16
|
Master Card
|
51-55
|
16
|
American Express
|
34 or 37
|
15
|
The Luhn Algorithm is used to check a credit card number's validity.
Given a credit card number:
1. Reverse the order of the digits, removing non-digits (i.e., dashes).
2. In this list of reversed digits, double every other number, starting
with the second number in the list.
3. Now, compute the sum of every single digit in the list. That is, if
one of the numbers in your list is 14, add 1+4 to your accumulating sum.
4. If the sum you calculated in step 3 is divisible by 10, the number
is valid. Otherwise, it is invalid.
Source:
1. http://www.brainjar.com/js/validation/default2.asp
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_numbers