# Email validation **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 2, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363 "2006-09-02T20:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/1 "2006-09-02T20:20:55Z")
im back again… ive been linked to [http://tfletcher.com/lib/rfc822.rb](http://tfletcher.com/lib/rfc822.rb) to use for e-mail validation, can someone explain how I use it with a validation statement? right now i have validates\_format\_of :email, :with =\> but im not sure how to incorporate it properly… thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/2 "2006-09-02T20:47:00Z")
use the email\_column plugin! It uses tmail::address for most of its lower level stuff and, as far as I can tell, this is part of the ruby action mailer. In your model: include EmailColumn email\_column :email and it takes care of the validation ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/3 "2006-09-02T21:27:03Z")
cool, works like a charm… this is the one I was using, I converted it from my php class a few hours ago, also works fairly well. validates\_format\_of :email, :with =\> %r{^(?:[\_a-z0-9-]+)(.[\_a-z0-9-]+)_@([a-z0-9-]+)(.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)_(.[a-z]{2,4})$}i I havent had any problems with it when it was PHP so im sure it will be perfect for most people… let me know if you know of something im forgetting in that regex and ill change it as needed. ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/4 "2006-09-04T09:42:28Z")
releod wrote: > cool, works like a charm… this is the one I was using, I converted it > from my php class a few hours ago, also works fairly well. > > validates\_format\_of :email, :with =\> > %r{^(?:[\_a-z0-9-]+)(.[\_a-z0-9-]+)_@([a-z0-9-]+)(.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)_(.[a-z]{2,4})$}i It matches “anything you want\removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid”. You should use \A and \Z instead of ^ and $. ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/5 "2006-09-04T14:44:17Z")
I agree. Check that it has an @ and at least one period somewhere after the @, but don’t waste any more time on it than that. I don’t really see why extensive email validation is necessary. The only reason I can think of is to stop people entering stuff which isn’t a real email address, but of course, that won’t work, because, because someone could quite easily enter removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid, which appears perfectly valid to any email validator regexp. So just leave it out… it’s pointless, and you risk excluding legitimate email addresses. -Nathan ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/6 "2006-09-04T14:44:11Z")
> validates\_format\_of :email, :with =\> > %r{^(?:[\_a-z0-9-]+)(.[\_a-z0-9-]+)_@([a-z0-9-]+)(.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)_(.[a-z]{2,4})$}i I’m pretty sure that is incorrect. Check out: [http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html](http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html) Plus I believe there are military domains that are one character, like ‘z’ for the New Zealand military? this one actually really fries me. SO many sites don’t allow me to enter something like removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid they completly crap out…sometimes it is the period before the ‘@’, or two periods after the ‘@’, and then the ‘.coop’ usually throws most people for a loop. do people a favor and keep this validation loose unless you _really_ need to check it. Do you care if the domain is between 2-4 chars? Adam ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/7 "2006-09-04T17:11:41Z")
On Sep 3, 2006, at 9:59 PM, Adam G. wrote: > > validates\_format\_of :email, :with =\> > > %r{^(?:[\_a-z0-9-]+)(.[\_a-z0-9-]+)_@([a-z0-9-]+)(.[a-zA-Z0-9-.] > > +)_(.[a-z]{2,4})$}i > > I’m pretty sure that is incorrect. Check out: > [http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html](http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html) There is a really nice (and long) regex here that I’ve used in the past. [http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html](http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html) Robby ---
**Author:** ![releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@releod](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/releod)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/email-validation/67363/8 "2006-09-04T23:48:29Z")
Hello, Have you checked validates\_as\_email plugin: [https://svn.greenpeace.org/repositories/rails\_plugins/validates\_as\_email/trunk/README](https://svn.greenpeace.org/repositories/rails_plugins/validates_as_email/trunk/README) It looks quite easy to use. Personally I am having trouble installing it. If anybody have an idea: ruby script/plugin install [https://svn.greenpeace.org/repositories/rails\_plugins/validates\_as\_email](https://svn.greenpeace.org/repositories/rails_plugins/validates_as_email) c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:588:in `connect': certificate verify failed (OpenSSL::SSL ::SSLError) from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:588:in `connect’ from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:555:in `do_start' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:544:in `start’ from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:245:in `open_http' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:629:in `buffer\_open’ from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:167:in `open_loop' from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:165:in `open\_loop’ from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:135:in `open_uri' ... 11 levels... from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.1.2/lib/commands/plugin.rb:871 from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:21:in `require’ from c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/depende ncies.rb:147:in `require’ from script/plugin:3 I have been playing around with soap4r so it could come from there. Did not have time to really look into it but somebody out there might know the answer, Cheers, Carl On 9/4/06, Robby R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > There is a really nice (and long) regex here that I’ve used in the past. > > [How to Find or Validate an Email Address](http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html) > > Robby > > > – Carl-Gustaf H.