JavaScript split string around emails

Question

So I have this list of emails:

john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com
john.doe@doe.com

It comes through as a string, sometimes with a return character at the end of each line, sometimes it doesn't. All I want to be able to do is pull out each email from the string using regex.

So I've got this regex exp from here:

function validateEmail(email) { 
    var re = /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/;
    return re.test(email);
}

How do I get it to match many email addresses and return me each individual email?

I do not want to split on a return character, I can't always garauntee that it will be that character that will split the list up. These emails are pasted in from the users clipboard. If it were that easy, I wouldn't have asked ;)

How about replacing any number of white-spaces with a single white-space of your choice? — Terry, Dec 15 '14 at 14:52

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 14:40

2

It comes through as a string, with a return character at the end of each line.

Then just split the string on newlines ?

var email_array = str.split("\n");

answered Dec 15 '14 at 14:40

adeneo

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What if it doesn't come through as a return character, what if it is just a space which separates them? I don't know how the email address(es) will come through, that is why I can't just split on `\n` because that wouldn't be safe enough – Callum Linington Dec 15 '14 at 14:46
Then split on space, newlines, commas and whatever it can be `str.split(/(\n|\s|,)/)` etc. – adeneo Dec 15 '14 at 14:52
Matching emails with a regex is complicated, and you will fail. For instance your regex fails for `.@example.com` which is a valid email etc. – adeneo Dec 15 '14 at 14:56
spaces fails : `Ima Fool@example.com`, special characters will fail : `name@bløff.se` and a number of others. – adeneo Dec 15 '14 at 14:59

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 17:37

Here's a VERY simple way to do it.

/([^;:<>!?\n]+\@[^;:<>!?\n]+\.[^;:<>!?\n]+)/gmi

Explanation:

The [^;:<>!?\n] matches everything EXCEPT those characters. So [^;:<>!?\n]+ just means match everything but these as many times as needed.

Then match an @ symbol.

Then match as many of NOT these ([^;:<>!?\n]) as needed again.

Then match a literal dot (.).

Then DON'T match these ([^;:<>!?\n]) again.

The gmis at the end are called flags. They mean:

g means global. Match this RegEx over and over.
m means multi-line. Don't stop at the end of the first line of emails.
i means insensitive. Don't worry about the upper and lower cases.

Demonstrations here: https://regex101.com/r/aC5cK2/1

That sir, is an awesome answer! I will try it out in the new year thanks :) — Callum Linington, Dec 16 '14 at 08:20
@CallumLinington, please accept my answer if it works for you :) Glad to help! — Ian Hazzard, Dec 16 '14 at 16:40

Callum Linington · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-15T15:12:46.833

So I have re work the answer to incorporate what @adeneo said:

$scope.pasteThis = function(e) {
    var emails = e.clipboardData.getData('text/plain');

    var emailArray = emails.split(/(\n|\s|,)/);

    angular.forEach(emailArray, function (e) {
        var EMAIL_REGEXP = /^[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+\/=?^_`{|}~.-]+@[a-z0-9]([a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?(\.[a-z0-9]([a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?)*$/i;

        if (EMAIL_REGEXP.test(e)) {
            if (!contains($scope.emailAddresses, e)) {
                $scope.emailAddresses.push(e);
            }
        }
    });
}

function contains(arr, el) {
    var found = false;
    angular.forEach(arr, function(e) {
        if (e == el) {
            found = true;
        }
    });

    return found;
}

So EMAIL_REGEXP is from the Angular source code. I use that in other places so it is very appropriate to use it here (consistency).

This function makes sure that after the emails are split, each one is a valid email address. This means that no mess can get through.

JavaScript split string around emails

3 Answers3

Explanation: