Why does preg_match not work?

Question

Since "ereg" began to depreciate, I started using "preg_match". Unfortunately, in my code, it does not accept my valid email address. I am sure that this regular expression that I use works, but what I am looking for is an alternative when performing this function or to indicate what I am doing wrong.

Here is my function:

function validate($email){ $regex = "^((([az]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+(\.([az]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+)*)@((((([az]|[0-9])([az]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([az]|[0-9])\.))*([az]|[0-9])([az]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([az]|[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 my code reacts to the function.

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

When 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 

Thanks!

Answer 1

Your regex pattern needs separators:

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

EDIT: And then you need to avoid the delimiter characters in your regular expression, if any.

Using / as a separator, you got two in your template:

 $regex = "/^((([az]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|\/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+(\.([az]|[0-9]|!|#|$|%|&|'|\*|\+|\-|\/|=|\?|\^|_|`|\{|\||\}|~)+)*)@((((([az]|[0-9])([az]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([az]|[0-9])\.))*([az]|[0-9])([az]|[0-9]|\-){0,61}([az]|[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 received

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

he found the ^ character as the first character in your template, taking it as a separator and complaining because he did not find a suitable ^ separator to end the template.

Answer 2

You can do this without preg_xx at all:

 function validate($email) { return filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL); } if (false === validate($email)) { // invalid email given } 

It uses filter_var() along with FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL