Password Specifications

[James Birkett]

Is there any method of creating a specification for passwords (BEFORE they are hashed) so that they have to have characters in them.

I was thinking something along the lines of (not valid syntax):

PHP Code:

if($user['usergroupid'] == {moderator usergroup id}){
if(!preg_match("/^[A-Z][a-z][0-9]@:;?%{}/",$_POST['password']){
 print "Your password must be more secure";
}
}