regex not working on email address copied from word or Evernote

Question

Hi I have a regex on an email field which works fine in most scenarios but is failing in a weird situation. Following is the regex that I am using

\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*

and following are the two similar looking email addresses on which I am testing the regex.

global-do-not-reply@abc.com
global-​do-not-reply@abc.com

(Do not be confused with the visible text as it looks the same)

Strangely the regex fails on 1 of the email addresses. The reason I have figured out is that when I wrote the email address (do-not-reply@abc.com) in Evernote and pressed enter, it changed it into a link. but if you add another text (global-) to the email address after its being changed into a link, then the newly added text will not be treated as a part of the email address. I checked the complete email address in Notepad++ and found that Evernote (MS Word does the same too) has added a non-printable character at the beginning of the email address and the text I added to the email address later (after Evernote changed the text into the link) is appearing before the non printable characters. Which seems to be the reason. But I am not sure as to how to handle it using regex or using any other method. I am working on ASP.Net Webforms

Answer 1

there is a stray character after the - hiphen in your second example which you cant see.

better use this regex :

\w+([-+.'].?\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*

which will take into account if any stray character comes as a result of pasting.

demo here : http://regex101.com/r/bO9fJ4

or as an alternative , you can remove all the unwanted characters from your email before testing.

Answer 2

The difference is an extra U+200b character (zero-with space) after the first '-'.

I'm guessing that this is Evernote's way to allow characters right next to an e-mail address (and probably also a URL), that are not part of the e-mail. By inserting an invisible space character, it makes the "global-" be separate from the e-mail address, just as if separated by a visual space. Your RegExp is actually working exactly the way Evernote's own e-mail handling is, and it recognizes the same e-mail address. Arguably, it's a feature, not a bug!

So, one solution is that you make sure that Evernote (or Word) thinks the same way about the e-mail address as you do - make sure that the "global-" becomes part of the address in the editor, not just being visually adjacent to it.

The other solution is to remove U+200b characters first.

Answer 3

Replace characters before validation, e.g.

<asp:TextBox 
onchange="this.value=this.value.replace(/[^a-z0-9\.\-\_@]+/gi, '')" ...

Example

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server" />

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="RegularExpressionValidator1"
    ControlToValidate="TextBox1"  
    ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*"
    EnableClientScript="true"
    ErrorMessage="Error"
    runat="server" />

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox2" 
onkeyup="this.value=this.value.replace(/[^a-z0-9\.\-\_@]+/gi, '')" 
runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="RegularExpressionValidator2"
    ControlToValidate="TextBox2"  
    ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*"
    EnableClientScript="true"
    ErrorMessage="Error"
    runat="server" />

Copy and paste second email address in both textboxes and see that the second textbox will match the same text with the same pattern.

Answer 4

@smirnov made me get to the answer. Although the answer he provided was quite good but it stopped the validator controller to function as desired. Following is the answer to the above question

    <asp:TextBox ID="txtEmail" CssClass="fieldMedium" runat="server" meta:resourcekey="txtEmail" 
     onkeyup="this.value=this.value.replace(/[\0-\x1F\x7F-\x9F\xAD\u0378\u0379\u037F-\u0383\u038B\u038D\u03A2\u0528-\u0530\u0557\u0558\u0560\u0588\u058B-\u058E\u0590\u05C8-\u05CF\u05EB-\u05EF\u05F5-\u0605\u061C\u061D\u06DD\u070E\u070F\u074B\u074C\u07B2-\u07BF\u07FB-\u07FF\u082E\u082F\u083F\u085C\u085D\u085F-\u089F\u08A1\u08AD-\u08E3\u08FF\u0978\u0980\u0984\u098D\u098E\u0991\u0992\u09A9\u09B1\u09B3-\u09B5\u09BA\u09BB\u09C5\u09C6\u09C9\u09CA\u09CF-\u09D6\u09D8-\u09DB\u09DE\u09E4\u09E5\u09FC-\u0A00\u0A04\u0A0B-\u0A0E\u0A11\u0A12\u0A29\u0A31\u0A34\u0A37\u0A3A\u0A3B\u0A3D\u0A43-\u0A46\u0A49\u0A4A\u0A4E-\u0A50\u0A52-\u0A58\u0A5D\u0A5F-\u0A65\u0A76-\u0A80\u0A84\u0A8E\u0A92\u0AA9\u0AB1\u0AB4\u0ABA\u0ABB\u0AC6\u0ACA\u0ACE\u0ACF\u0AD1-\u0ADF\u0AE4\u0AE5\u0AF2-\u0B00\u0B04\u0B0D\u0B0E\u0B11\u0B12\u0B29\u0B31\u0B34\u0B3A\u0B3B\u0B45\u0B46\u0B49\u0B4A\u0B4E-\u0B55\u0B58-\u0B5B\u0B5E\u0B64\u0B65\u0B78-\u0B81\u0B84\u0B8B-\u0B8D\u0B91\u0B96-\u0B98\u0B9B\u0B9D\u0BA0-\u0BA2\u0BA5-\u0BA7\u0BAB-\u0BAD\u0BBA-\u0BBD\u0BC3-\u0BC5\u0BC9\u0BCE\u0BCF\u0BD1-\u0BD6\u0BD8-\u0BE5\u0BFB-\u0C00\u0C04\u0C0D\u0C11\u0C29\u0C34\u0C3A-\u0C3C\u0C45\u0C49\u0C4E-\u0C54\u0C57\u0C5A-\u0C5F\u0C64\u0C65\u0C70-\u0C77\u0C80\u0C81\u0C84\u0C8D\u0C91\u0CA9\u0CB4\u0CBA\u0CBB\u0CC5\u0CC9\u0CCE-\u0CD4\u0CD7-\u0CDD\u0CDF\u0CE4\u0CE5\u0CF0\u0CF3-\u0D01\u0D04\u0D0D\u0D11\u0D3B\u0D3C\u0D45\u0D49\u0D4F-\u0D56\u0D58-\u0D5F\u0D64\u0D65\u0D76-\u0D78\u0D80\u0D81\u0D84\u0D97-\u0D99\u0DB2\u0DBC\u0DBE\u0DBF\u0DC7-\u0DC9\u0DCB-\u0DCE\u0DD5\u0DD7\u0DE0-\u0DF1\u0DF5-\u0E00\u0E3B-\u0E3E\u0E5C-\u0E80\u0E83\u0E85\u0E86\u0E89\u0E8B\u0E8C\u0E8E-\u0E93\u0E98\u0EA0\u0EA4\u0EA6\u0EA8\u0EA9\u0EAC\u0EBA\u0EBE\u0EBF\u0EC5\u0EC7\u0ECE\u0ECF\u0EDA\u0EDB\u0EE0-\u0EFF\u0F48\u0F6D-\u0F70\u0F98\u0FBD\u0FCD\u0FDB-\u0FFF\u10C6\u10C8-\u10CC\u10CE\u10CF\u1249\u124E\u124F\u1257\u1259\u125E\u125F\u1289\u128E\u128F\u12B1\u12B6\u12B7\u12BF\u12C1\u12C6\u12C7\u12D7\u1311\u1316\u1317\u135B\u135C\u137D-\u137F\u139A-\u139F\u13F5-\u13FF\u169D-\u169F\u16F1-\u16FF\u170D\u1715-\u171F\u1737-\u173F\u1754-\u175F\u176D\u1771\u1774-\u177F\u17DE\u17DF\u17EA-\u17EF\u17FA-\u17FF\u180F\u181A-\u181F\u1878-\u187F\u18AB-\u18AF\u18F6-\u18FF\u191D-\u191F\u192C-\u192F\u193C-\u193F\u1941-\u1943\u196E\u196F\u1975-\u197F\u19AC-\u19AF\u19CA-\u19CF\u19DB-\u19DD\u1A1C\u1A1D\u1A5F\u1A7D\u1A7E\u1A8A-\u1A8F\u1A9A-\u1A9F\u1AAE-\u1AFF\u1B4C-\u1B4F\u1B7D-\u1B7F\u1BF4-\u1BFB\u1C38-\u1C3A\u1C4A-\u1C4C\u1C80-\u1CBF\u1CC8-\u1CCF\u1CF7-\u1CFF\u1DE7-\u1DFB\u1F16\u1F17\u1F1E\u1F1F\u1F46\u1F47\u1F4E\u1F4F\u1F58\u1F5A\u1F5C\u1F5E\u1F7E\u1F7F\u1FB5\u1FC5\u1FD4\u1FD5\u1FDC\u1FF0\u1FF1\u1FF5\u1FFF\u200B-\u200F\u202A-\u202E\u2060-\u206F\u2072\u2073\u208F\u209D-\u209F\u20BB-\u20CF\u20F1-\u20FF\u218A-\u218F\u23F4-\u23FF\u2427-\u243F\u244B-\u245F\u2700\u2B4D-\u2B4F\u2B5A-\u2BFF\u2C2F\u2C5F\u2CF4-\u2CF8\u2D26\u2D28-\u2D2C\u2D2E\u2D2F\u2D68-\u2D6E\u2D71-\u2D7E\u2D97-\u2D9F\u2DA7\u2DAF\u2DB7\u2DBF\u2DC7\u2DCF\u2DD7\u2DDF\u2E3C-\u2E7F\u2E9A\u2EF4-\u2EFF\u2FD6-\u2FEF\u2FFC-\u2FFF\u3040\u3097\u3098\u3100-\u3104\u312E-\u3130\u318F\u31BB-\u31BF\u31E4-\u31EF\u321F\u32FF\u4DB6-\u4DBF\u9FCD-\u9FFF\uA48D-\uA48F\uA4C7-\uA4CF\uA62C-\uA63F\uA698-\uA69E\uA6F8-\uA6FF\uA78F\uA794-\uA79F\uA7AB-\uA7F7\uA82C-\uA82F\uA83A-\uA83F\uA878-\uA87F\uA8C5-\uA8CD\uA8DA-\uA8DF\uA8FC-\uA8FF\uA954-\uA95E\uA97D-\uA97F\uA9CE\uA9DA-\uA9DD\uA9E0-\uA9FF\uAA37-\uAA3F\uAA4E\uAA4F\uAA5A\uAA5B\uAA7C-\uAA7F\uAAC3-\uAADA\uAAF7-\uAB00\uAB07\uAB08\uAB0F\uAB10\uAB17-\uAB1F\uAB27\uAB2F-\uABBF\uABEE\uABEF\uABFA-\uABFF\uD7A4-\uD7AF\uD7C7-\uD7CA\uD7FC-\uF8FF\uFA6E\uFA6F\uFADA-\uFAFF\uFB07-\uFB12\uFB18-\uFB1C\uFB37\uFB3D\uFB3F\uFB42\uFB45\uFBC2-\uFBD2\uFD40-\uFD4F\uFD90\uFD91\uFDC8-\uFDEF\uFDFE\uFDFF\uFE1A-\uFE1F\uFE27-\uFE2F\uFE53\uFE67\uFE6C-\uFE6F\uFE75\uFEFD-\uFF00\uFFBF-\uFFC1\uFFC8\uFFC9\uFFD0\uFFD1\uFFD8\uFFD9\uFFDD-\uFFDF\uFFE7\uFFEF-\uFFFB\uFFFE\uFFFF]/g, '')" />

I looked at the following link to get a list of all the non-printable Unicode characters.

How to replace non-printable unicode characters (Javascript)

Now the above solution will not interfere with the functionality of the regular expression validator and the non-printable characters will also get stripped of the text.

Thanks all the guys for your help.

Answer 5

Try using this expression which works fine for me:

Regex regex = new Regex(@"^([\w\.\-]+)@([\w\-]+)((\.(\w){2,3})+)$");