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In PHP, how do you validate an email?

Problem

How can I use php5 to verify that the input value is a valid email address? This code is now in use by me.

function isValidEmail($email){ 
     $pattern = "^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$"; 

     if (eregi($pattern, $email)){ 
        return true; 
     } 
     else { 
        return false; 
     }    
} 

However, it displays a deprecated error. What can I do to resolve this problem? Please assist me.

Asked by learner

Solution #1

The filter var() method provides a variety of useful validation and sanitization options.

filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)

If you don’t want to update any of your code that relies on your function, simply follow these steps:

function isValidEmail($email){ 
    return filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) !== false;
}

Note: The deprecated ereg function family (POSIX Regex Functions) should be replaced with the preg function family for other usage (where you need Regex) (PCRE Regex Functions). There are a few differences, but reading the manual should enough.

Update 1: As @binaryLV pointed out:

This bug has already been fixed.

Update 2: Of course, this approach will validate bazmega@kapa as a genuine email address, since it is. On the Internet, however, you almost always want the email address to have a TLD: bazmega@kapa.com. As suggested in this blog post (link posted by @Istiaque Ahmed), you can augment filter_var() with a regex that will check for the existence of a dot in the domain part (will not check for a valid TLD though):

function isValidEmail($email) {
    return filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) 
        && preg_match('/@.+\./', $email);
}

As @Eliseo Ocampos pointed out, this issue only existed before to PHP 5.3; in that version, the regex was updated, and the check is now performed automatically, so you don’t have to.

Answered by kapa

Solution #2

See http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ereg.php for more information. :

Answered by Sean Kelleher

Solution #3

Although this is an old post, I will share one of my solutions because no one has mentioned an issue here previously.

UTF-8 characters or special domain names like.live,.news, and others can be used in a new email address.

Also, I’ve discovered that certain email addresses are in Cyrillic, which means that regular regex or filter var() will always fail.

That’s why I devised a solution:

function valid_email($email) 
{
    if(is_array($email) || is_numeric($email) || is_bool($email) || is_float($email) || is_file($email) || is_dir($email) || is_int($email))
        return false;
    else
    {
        $email=trim(strtolower($email));
        if(filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)!==false) return $email;
        else
        {
            $pattern = '/^(?!(?:(?:\\x22?\\x5C[\\x00-\\x7E]\\x22?)|(?:\\x22?[^\\x5C\\x22]\\x22?)){255,})(?!(?:(?:\\x22?\\x5C[\\x00-\\x7E]\\x22?)|(?:\\x22?[^\\x5C\\x22]\\x22?)){65,}@)(?:(?:[\\x21\\x23-\\x27\\x2A\\x2B\\x2D\\x2F-\\x39\\x3D\\x3F\\x5E-\\x7E]+)|(?:\\x22(?:[\\x01-\\x08\\x0B\\x0C\\x0E-\\x1F\\x21\\x23-\\x5B\\x5D-\\x7F]|(?:\\x5C[\\x00-\\x7F]))*\\x22))(?:\\.(?:(?:[\\x21\\x23-\\x27\\x2A\\x2B\\x2D\\x2F-\\x39\\x3D\\x3F\\x5E-\\x7E]+)|(?:\\x22(?:[\\x01-\\x08\\x0B\\x0C\\x0E-\\x1F\\x21\\x23-\\x5B\\x5D-\\x7F]|(?:\\x5C[\\x00-\\x7F]))*\\x22)))*@(?:(?:(?!.*[^.]{64,})(?:(?:(?:xn--)?[a-z0-9]+(?:-+[a-z0-9]+)*\\.){1,126}){1,}(?:(?:[a-z][a-z0-9]*)|(?:(?:xn--)[a-z0-9]+))(?:-+[a-z0-9]+)*)|(?:\\[(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){7})|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9][:\\]]){7,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?)))|(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){5}:)|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9]:){5,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3}:)?)))?(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))(?:\\.(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))){3}))\\]))$/iD';
            return (preg_match($pattern, $email) === 1) ? $email : false;
        }
    }
}

This function works well in all situations and email formats.

Answered by Ivijan Stefan Stipić

Solution #4

This is something I constantly say:

function validEmail($email){
    // First, we check that there's one @ symbol, and that the lengths are right
    if (!preg_match("/^[^@]{1,64}@[^@]{1,255}$/", $email)) {
        // Email invalid because wrong number of characters in one section, or wrong number of @ symbols.
        return false;
    }
    // Split it into sections to make life easier
    $email_array = explode("@", $email);
    $local_array = explode(".", $email_array[0]);
    for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($local_array); $i++) {
        if (!preg_match("/^(([A-Za-z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~-][A-Za-z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~\.-]{0,63})|(\"[^(\\|\")]{0,62}\"))$/", $local_array[$i])) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    if (!preg_match("/^\[?[0-9\.]+\]?$/", $email_array[1])) { // Check if domain is IP. If not, it should be valid domain name
        $domain_array = explode(".", $email_array[1]);
        if (sizeof($domain_array) < 2) {
            return false; // Not enough parts to domain
        }
        for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($domain_array); $i++) {
            if (!preg_match("/^(([A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9-]{0,61}[A-Za-z0-9])|([A-Za-z0-9]+))$/", $domain_array[$i])) {
                return false;
            }
        }
    }

    return true;
}

Answered by unbreak

Solution #5

Prior to email validation, you must first delete all illegal characters from the email.

//This will Remove all illegal characters from email
$email = filter_var($email, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

After that, use the filter var() function to validate your email address.

filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) // To Validate the email

For e.g.

<?php
$email = "john.doe@example.com";

// Remove all illegal characters from email
$email = filter_var($email, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

// Validate email
if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    echo $email." is a valid email address";
} else {
    echo $email." is not a valid email address";
}
?>

Answered by mufazmi

Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5855811/how-to-validate-an-email-in-php