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Super simple email validation with JavaScript

Asked 2011-02-11T01:23:22.053
50

I'm making a really simple email validation script that basically just checks the following

  1. that the email isn't blank
  2. the the email contains an @ symbol with at least 1 character before it
  3. that there is a domain ie @ with at least 2 letters after it
  4. that it ends with a fullstop with at least 2 letters after it

I know there are many more checks, but I look at these regex rules and my mind stops working. I figure if I started with something small like this I might be able to wrap my brain around more complex rules.

Currently using some jQuery I do the following:

 var booking_email = $('input[name=booking_email]').val();

 if(booking_email == '' || booking_email.indexOf('@') == -1 || booking_email.indexOf('.') == -1) {

   // perform my alert

 }

This is enough to stop 90% of bogus emails so far... I would just like to make it a bit more effective because currently my rule will allow emails like '@example.com' or 'user@domain.' because it only checks that there is a fullstop and an @ symbol.

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2 Answers

92

What others have suggested should work fine, but if you want to keep things simple, try this:

var booking_email = $('input[name=booking_email]').val();

if( /(.+)@(.+){2,}\.(.+){2,}/.test(booking_email) ){
  // valid email
} else {
  // invalid email
}

Even if you decide to go with something more robust, it should help you understand how simple regex can be at times. :)

answered 2011-02-11T01:34:05.160
3

Try:

function valid_email(email) {
   return email.match(/^([\w\!\#$\%\&\'\*\+\-\/\=\?\^\`{\|\}\~]+\.)*[\w\!\#$\%\&\'\*\+\-\/\=\?\^\`{\|\}\~]+@((((([a-z0-9]{1}[a-z0-9\-]{0,62}[a-z0-9]{1})|[a-z])\.)+[a-z]{2,6})|(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}(\:\d{1,5})?)$/i);
}

That is the best available email validation regex, according to this article. I recommend using this, unless your goal is something really simple but not fully compatible.

answered 2011-02-11T01:35:50.097

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