CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpregexpreg-match
slippery
slippery

Reputation: 447

Why won't preg_match work?

Ever since "ereg" became depreciated, I began to use "preg_match". Unfortunately in my code, it doesn't accept my valid e-mail address. I am certain that this Regular Expression i'm using is working, but what I'm looking for is an alternative in doing this function or to point out what I'm doing wrong.

Here's my function:

function validate($email){
  $regex = "^((([a-z]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+(\.([a-z]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+)*)@((((([a-z]|[0-9])([a-z]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([a-z]|[0-9])\.))*([a-z]|[0-9])([a-z]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([a-z]|[0-9])\.(af|ax|al|dz|as|ad|ao|ai|aq|ag|ar|am|aw|au|at|az|bs|bh|bd|bb|by|be|bz|bj|bm|bt|bo|ba|bw|bv|br|io|bn|bg|bf|bi|kh|cm|ca|cv|ky|cf|td|cl|cn|cx|cc|co|km|cg|cd|ck|cr|ci|hr|cu|cy|cz|dk|dj|dm|do|ec|eg|sv|gq|er|ee|et|fk|fo|fj|fi|fr|gf|pf|tf|ga|gm|ge|de|gh|gi|gr|gl|gd|gp|gu|gt| gg|gn|gw|gy|ht|hm|va|hn|hk|hu|is|in|id|ir|iq|ie|im|il|it|jm|jp|je|jo|kz|ke|ki|kp|kr|kw|kg|la|lv|lb|ls|lr|ly|li|lt|lu|mo|mk|mg|mw|my|mv|ml|mt|mh|mq|mr|mu|yt|mx|fm|md|mc|mn|ms|ma|mz|mm|na|nr|np|nl|an|nc|nz|ni|ne|ng|nu|nf|mp|no|om|pk|pw|ps|pa|pg|py|pe|ph|pn|pl|pt|pr|qa|re|ro|ru|rw|sh|kn|lc|pm|vc|ws|sm|st|sa|sn|cs|sc|sl|sg|sk|si|sb|so|za|gs|es|lk|sd|sr|sj|sz|se|ch|sy|tw|tj|tz|th|tl|tg|tk|to|tt|tn|tr|tm|tc|tv|ug|ua|ae|gb|us|um|uy|uz|vu|ve|vn|vg|vi|wf|eh|ye|zm|zw|com|edu|gov|int|mil|net|org|biz|info|name|pro|aero|coop|museum|arpa))|(((([0-9]){1,3}\.){3}([0-9]){1,3}))|(\[((([0-9]){1,3}\.){3}([0-9]){1,3})\])))$";
  if (preg_match($regex, $email)) { 
      return true;
  } else {
      return false;
  }
}

and here's my code to react with the function.

if (validate($email) == false){
  $_SESSION['error'] = "You have an invalid email!<br /><br />";
  header("Location: contact.php");
  die;
}

As I run this code, it shows this error message:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: No ending delimiter '^' found in C:\xampp\htdocs\2012\Next\inc\functions.php on line 11

Upvotes: 4

Views: 456

Answers (2)

Ja͢ck
Ja͢ck

Reputation: 173562

You can do this without preg_xx altogether:

function validate($email)
{
    return filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);
}

if (false === validate($email)) {
    // invalid email given
}

It uses filter_var() together with FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL

Upvotes: 4

guido
guido

Reputation: 19194

Your regex pattern need delimiters:

function validate($email){
  $regex = "/...your pattern.../";
  if (preg_match($regex, $email)) { 
      return true;
  } else {
      return false;
  }
}

EDIT: AND then you need to escape the delimiters characters in your regex, if present.

Using / as delimiter, you got two in your pattern:

$regex = "/^((([a-z]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|\/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+(\.([a-z]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|\/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+)*)@((((([a-z]|[0-9])([a-z]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([a-z]|[0-9])\.))*([a-z]|[0-9])([a-z]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([a-z]|[0-9])\.(af|ax|al|dz|as|ad|ao|ai|aq|ag|ar|am|aw|au|at|az|bs|bh|bd|bb|by|be|bz|bj|bm|bt|bo|ba|bw|bv|br|io|bn|bg|bf|bi|kh|cm|ca|cv|ky|cf|td|cl|cn|cx|cc|co|km|cg|cd|ck|cr|ci|hr|cu|cy|cz|dk|dj|dm|do|ec|eg|sv|gq|er|ee|et|fk|fo|fj|fi|fr|gf|pf|tf|ga|gm|ge|de|gh|gi|gr|gl|gd|gp|gu|gt| gg|gn|gw|gy|ht|hm|va|hn|hk|hu|is|in|id|ir|iq|ie|im|il|it|jm|jp|je|jo|kz|ke|ki|kp|kr|kw|kg|la|lv|lb|ls|lr|ly|li|lt|lu|mo|mk|mg|mw|my|mv|ml|mt|mh|mq|mr|mu|yt|mx|fm|md|mc|mn|ms|ma|mz|mm|na|nr|np|nl|an|nc|nz|ni|ne|ng|nu|nf|mp|no|om|pk|pw|ps|pa|pg|py|pe|ph|pn|pl|pt|pr|qa|re|ro|ru|rw|sh|kn|lc|pm|vc|ws|sm|st|sa|sn|cs|sc|sl|sg|sk|si|sb|so|za|gs|es|lk|sd|sr|sj|sz|se|ch|sy|tw|tj|tz|th|tl|tg|tk|to|tt|tn|tr|tm|tc|tv|ug|ua|ae|gb|us|um|uy|uz|vu|ve|vn|vg|vi|wf|eh|ye|zm|zw|com|edu|gov|int|mil|net|org|biz|info|name|pro|aero|coop|museum|arpa))|(((([0-9]){1,3}\.){3}([0-9]){1,3}))|(\[((([0-9]){1,3}\.){3}([0-9]){1,3})\])))$/";

EDIT 2:

about the error you were getting 

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: No ending delimiter '^' found ...

it found the ^ character as first character in your pattern, taking it as a delimiter, and complained because it did not find a matching ^ delimiter ending the pattern.

Upvotes: 7

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