Regular expression for email, why doesn't it work?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What is the best regular expression for validating email addresses?

I've been trying to do some regex for email filtering.

Allowed

anystring@example.com
any.string@example.com
a@example.com

Not allowed

any.st.ring@example.com
.a@example.com
a.@example.com
@example.com

This one accepts all allowed... but also a.@example.com

^([a-zA-Z0-9]+[\.]?){1,2}@([a-zA-Z0-9]+\.)+(com)$

This one accepts all allowed... except a@example.com!

Added [^\.] before @

^([a-zA-Z0-9]+[\.]?){1,2}[^\.]@([a-zA-Z0-9]+\.)+(com)$

What am I missing here?

Why the heck isn't `any.st.ring@example.com` allowed? – NullUserException Oct 06 '11 at 01:04 — NullUserException, Oct 06 '11 at 01:04
@NullUserExceptionఠ_ఠ stupid school assignment... – hampusohlsson Oct 06 '11 at 01:10 — hampusohlsson, Oct 06 '11 at 01:10

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 06 '11 at 01:16

^[a-zA-Z0-9]+(\.[a-zA-Z0-9]+)?@([a-zA-Z0-9]+\.)+com$ will accept your 'allowed' emails and reject the others.

Naturally, that will not match all generally valid emails. See http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html for a discussion on email regular expressions.

1 Answers1