[ACCEPTED]-Validating an email address-email

Accepted answer

Score: 31

This is code we have on production (even 4 added a comma for you). Normally you shouldn't 3 use try/catch for validation, but it works 2 well here. I believe it's better than trying 1 to recode the validator.

string[] allToAddresses = to.Split(";,".ToCharArray(),
                                 StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
foreach (string toAddress in allToAddresses)
{
    try
    {
        message.To.Add(toAddress);
    }
    catch (FormatException)
    {
        //do nothing, ill-formed address. 
    }
}

Score: 24

You could just split the email string on 4 the comma and validate each email address 3 using a simple (or huge) email regex. Or, try 2 creating a MailAddress object; it supports some basic 1 validation of the address too.

Score: 24

Currently we are using following function 2 and it is working quite well for us :)

public static bool IsValidEmail(string email)
{
    // source: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Validating_Email_Addresses.aspx
    Regex rx = new Regex(
    @"^[-!#$%&'*+/0-9=?A-Z^_a-z{|}~](\.?[-!#$%&'*+/0-9=?A-Z^_a-z{|}~])*@[a-zA-Z](-?[a-zA-Z0-9])*(\.[a-zA-Z](-?[a-zA-Z0-9])*)+$");
    return rx.IsMatch(email);
}

Please 1 use this:

(?:[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*|"(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21\x23-\x5b\x5d-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])*")@(?:(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?|\[(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?|[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]:(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21-\x5a\x53-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])+)\])

Score: 20

Having 100% RFC-compliant email validation 4 is hard, see this answer for details. In .NET two relatively 3 straightforward ways is to use MailAddress

try {
    new MailAddress("invalid_email");
} catch (FormatException) {
    // invalid
}
// TODO: ask MS to implement MailAddress.TryParse to avoid exception

Or more strict 2 Regex-based approach from MSDN (handles IDN 1 and Regex parsing timeout for .NET 4.5):

// NET 4.0
Boolean mappingInvalid = false;
emailString = Regex.Replace(emailString, @"(@)(.+)$", match => {
    String domainName = match.Groups[2].Value;
    try {
        domainName = new IdnMapping().GetAscii(domainName);
    } catch (ArgumentException) {
        mappingInvalid = true;
    }
    return match.Groups[1].Value + domainName;
});
if (mappingInvalid) {
    return false;
}
return Regex.IsMatch(emailString,
        @"^(?("")(""[^""]+?""@)|(([0-9a-z]((\.(?!\.))|[-!#\$%&'\*\+/=\?\^`\{\}\|~\w])*)(?<=[0-9a-z])@))" +
        @"(?(\[)(\[(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\])|(([0-9a-z][-\w]*[0-9a-z]*\.)+[a-z0-9]{2,17}))$",
        RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

Score: 7

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

return new EmailAddressAttribute().IsValid(strIn);

Score: 5

The following will check that the e-mail 11 address is of the correct form (not it that 10 actually exists):

private bool isEmail(string inputEmail)
{
    Regex re = new Regex(@"^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$",
                  RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
    return re.IsMatch(inputEmail);
}

I've updated this with 9 a simpler expression (including case insensitivity) in 8 order to hopefully make it a bit clearer.

The 7 following is the basics of the code that 6 will verify that the domain actually exists:

private bool isRealDomain(string inputEmail)
{
    bool isReal = false;
    try
    {
        string[] host = (inputEmail.Split('@'));
        string hostname = host[1];

        IPHostEntry IPhst = Dns.GetHostEntry(hostname);
        IPEndPoint endPt = new IPEndPoint(IPhst.AddressList[0], 25);
        Socket s = new Socket(endPt.AddressFamily,
                SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
        s.Connect(endPt);
        s.Close();
        isReal = true;
    }
    catch (<specific exceptions here>)
    {
    }

    return isReal;
}

There 5 is a lot more you can do, actually trying 4 to connect for example, to verify that the 3 domain will receive the mail. Plus you'll 2 need to make sure you catch the necessary 1 exceptions and handle them correctly.

Score: 3

Microsoft just updated their documentation 1 on validating email and it works great. link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/how-to-verify-that-strings-are-in-valid-email-format

Snippet:

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public class RegexUtilities
{
   bool invalid = false;

   public bool IsValidEmail(string strIn)
   {
       invalid = false;
       if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(strIn))
          return false;

       // Use IdnMapping class to convert Unicode domain names.
       try {
          strIn = Regex.Replace(strIn, @"(@)(.+)$", this.DomainMapper,
                                RegexOptions.None, TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(200));
       }
       catch (RegexMatchTimeoutException) {
         return false;
       }

        if (invalid)
           return false;

       // Return true if strIn is in valid email format.
       try {
          return Regex.IsMatch(strIn,
                @"^(?("")("".+?(?<!\\)""@)|(([0-9a-z]((\.(?!\.))|[-!#\$%&'\*\+/=\?\^`\{\}\|~\w])*)(?<=[0-9a-z])@))" +
                @"(?(\[)(\[(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\])|(([0-9a-z][-0-9a-z]*[0-9a-z]*\.)+[a-z0-9][\-a-z0-9]{0,22}[a-z0-9]))$",
                RegexOptions.IgnoreCase, TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(250));
       }
       catch (RegexMatchTimeoutException) {
          return false;
       }
   }

   private string DomainMapper(Match match)
   {
      // IdnMapping class with default property values.
      IdnMapping idn = new IdnMapping();

      string domainName = match.Groups[2].Value;
      try {
         domainName = idn.GetAscii(domainName);
      }
      catch (ArgumentException) {
         invalid = true;
      }
      return match.Groups[1].Value + domainName;
   }
}

Score: 2

There does not appear to be a good way to 8 validate email addresses.

I have not found 7 a regex to date which will validate correctly. I 6 have had cases of email addresses being 5 blocked by regex. So our focus is to ensure 4 that the MailMessage does not throw an exception 3 during a send. If it does, we can notify 2 the users. But outside of that, if you give 1 bad email address, you don't get an email.

Score: 2

Because none of the other answers appear 6 to show a 100% working regex, I'll have 5 a go. This is taken from production code 4 and does not suffer from the single letter 3 TLD issue (me@mydomain.x).

private bool IsEmailSyntaxValid(string emailToValidate)
{
    return System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(emailToValidate,
        @"^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?)$");
}

Can't remember 2 where I got this, but as I say, it works 1 for me in production.

Score: 1

You can always use the regex at this site its huge and 2 totally unreadable but it gets most edge 1 cases.

(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:(?:(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]
)+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:
\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(
?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ 
\t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\0
31]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\
](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+
(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:
(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*|(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z
|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)
?[ \t])*)*\<(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:@(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\
r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[
 \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)
?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]
)*))*(?:,@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[
 \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*
)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]
)+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*)
*:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)?(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+
|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r
\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:
\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t
]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031
]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](
?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?
:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?
:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*\>(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)|(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?
:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?
[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)*:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:(?:(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] 
\000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|
\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>
@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"
(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]
)*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\
".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?
:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[
\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*|(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-
\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(
?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)*\<(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:@(?:[^()<>@,;
:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([
^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\"
.\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\
]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*(?:,@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\
[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\
r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] 
\000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]
|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*)*:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)?(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \0
00-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\
.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,
;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?
:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*
(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".
\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[
^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]
]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*\>(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:,\s*(
?:(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\
".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(
?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[
\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t
])*))*@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t
])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?
:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|
\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*|(?:
[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\
]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)*\<(?:(?:\r\n)
?[ \t])*(?:@(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["
()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)
?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>
@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*(?:,@(?:(?:\r\n)?[
 \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,
;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]
)*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\
".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*)*:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)?
(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".
\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:
\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z|(?=[\[
"()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|"(?:[^\"\r\\]|\\.|(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t]))*"(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])
*))*@(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])
+|\Z|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\
.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\[\] \000-\031]+(?:(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])+|\Z
|(?=[\["()<>@,;:\\".\[\]]))|\[([^\[\]\r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*\>(?:(
?:\r\n)?[ \t])*))*)?;\s*)

Score: 0

Yeah, split the emails string on the delimiter 5 and then validate each email address. here's 4 an example, it will fail on the second email 3 address (foo#bar.com). I've used the regular 2 expression from the asp.net regular expression 1 control to validate the addresses.

String email = "bar@foo.com;foo#bar.com";

String expression = @"\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*";

Regex regex = new Regex(expression);

String[] emails = email.Split(new Char[] { ';' });

foreach (String s in emails)
{

    Match m = regex.Match(s);

    if (!m.Success)
     {
        // Validation fails.

     }
}

Score: 0

string uname = Convert.ToString(string);
string expression = @"\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*";

Regex regex = new Regex(expression);
Match m = regex.Match(uname);

if (m.Success)
{
    emailId = uname; 
}

Score: 0

You can use Regex. Just write below code.

public static bool IsValidEmail(this string email)
{
   const string pattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|" + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)" + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";    
   var regex = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);    
   return regex.IsMatch(email);
}

Source: stackoverflow.com

[ACCEPTED]-Validating an email address-email

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