the one true email regex [was] [thelist] REGEX: Tip- A regex library

[j.d. welch]

On Monday, June 16, 2003, at 01:53 PM, Chris W. Parker wrote:

>> Too bad all of the email regex examples fail RFC 822:
>
> Not trying to be sarcastic at all, but since I'm not very good at 
> regex do you think you can provide a proper solution?

this came up recently on another list i read (and this one too, i 
believe).  jeffrey friedl, in 'mastering regular expressions,' has done 
(and quite some time ago) just such an rfc-abiding regex; the best link 
to it i could find was 
<http://www.killersoft.com/downloads/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=4>.

the full syntax, and explanation, is included in the print version of 
the book.  it's 4,724 bytes long, and proves the point that either a) 
you can validate e-mail addresses for real, with something so intensely 
complex that the somewhat theoretical example for doing so is at nearly 
the end of a well-regarded book on the subject or b) you can do it 
half-assed, to varying degrees of same.  most people vote for the 
latter, often to my dismay-- say when i want to use something as simple 
as "so.there+spam at showtunepink.com".

-jd

------------------------------------------------------------------
    J.D. Welch			|  so.there at showtunepink.com
    graphic designer    	|  http://www.showtunepink.com
    web developer       		|  http://kitschparade.ath.cx
    i'm available 			|  http://www.showtunepink.com/resume.php
------------------------------------------------------------------