C# code to validate email address

akantro_4653 0
Viewed 594364

What is the most elegant code to validate that a string is a valid email address?

email-validation email c#
46 Answers

Short and accurate code 

string Email = txtEmail.Text;
if (Email.IsValidEmail())
{
   //use code here 
}

public static bool IsValidEmail(this string email)
{
  string pattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|" + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)" + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";    
  var regex = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);    
  return regex.IsMatch(email);
}
user_57182600

I just want to point out, that there has been a recent addition to the .NET documentation regarding email validation, also utilitzing Regex operations. A thorough explanation to their implementation can be found there.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/how-to-verify-that-strings-are-in-valid-email-format

For convenience, here is a list of their test results:

//       Valid: david.jones@proseware.com
//       Valid: d.j@server1.proseware.com
//       Valid: jones@ms1.proseware.com
//       Invalid: j.@server1.proseware.com
//       Valid: j@proseware.com9
//       Valid: js#internal@proseware.com
//       Valid: j_9@[129.126.118.1]
//       Invalid: j..s@proseware.com
//       Invalid: js*@proseware.com
//       Invalid: js@proseware..com
//       Valid: js@proseware.com9
//       Valid: j.s@server1.proseware.com
//       Valid: "j\"s\""@proseware.com
//       Valid: js@contoso.中国
user_52508410

I summarize all the above answers as of the current year 2021 I wrote for myself this class:

public static class StringExt {
    private const string emailPattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|" 
            + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)" 
            + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";

    public static bool IsValidMailAddress(this string pThis) 
            => pThis is not null 
            && Regex.IsMatch(pThis, emailPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
}
user_88400330

As mentioned in many answers, the domain of email addresses is complex. I would strongly discourage the use of a regex in this case. Those who match (most) cases are extremely complex to read and therefor to maintain. Furthermore, the still have difficulties supporting all cases, and are slow.

Microsoft's EmailAddress class helps a bit in that respect, but is not perfect either, I would argue. For an open source project I gave it try some years ago, by using a customized EmailParser.

That is used in [EmailAddress]https://github.com/Qowaiv/Qowaiv/blob/master/src/Qowaiv/EmailAddress.cs).

By using this approach, you're not only to validate email addresses, but also by cleaning out multiple formats of display names, getting rid of the mailto:-prefix, and normalizing domain literals based on IP-addresses, and lowercasing everything (note that the local part officially is case sensitive).

Scenario's your solution should support (and the mentioned one does):

[TestCase(null)]
[TestCase("")]
[TestCase("..@test.com")]
[TestCase(".a@test.com")]
[TestCase("ab@sd@dd")]
[TestCase(".@s.dd")]
[TestCase("ab@988.120.150.10")]
[TestCase("ab@120.256.256.120")]
[TestCase("ab@120.25.1111.120")]
[TestCase("ab@[188.120.150.10")]
[TestCase("ab@188.120.150.10]")]
[TestCase("ab@[188.120.150.10].com")]
[TestCase("a@b.-de.cc")]
[TestCase("a@bde-.cc")]
[TestCase("a@bde.c-c")]
[TestCase("a@bde.cc.")]
[TestCase("ab@b+de.cc")]
[TestCase("a..b@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("_@bde.cc,")]
[TestCase("plainaddress")]
[TestCase("plain.address")]
[TestCase("@%^%#$@#$@#.com")]
[TestCase("@domain.com")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith &lt;email@domain.com&gt;")]
[TestCase("email.domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain@domain.com")]
[TestCase(".email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email.@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email..email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@-domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain-.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com-")]
[TestCase("email@.domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com.")]
[TestCase("email@domain..com")]
[TestCase("email@111.222.333")]
[TestCase("email@111.222.333.256")]
[TestCase("email@[123.123.123.123")]
[TestCase("email@[123.123.123].123")]
[TestCase("email@123.123.123.123]")]
[TestCase("email@123.123.[123.123]")]
[TestCase("email@{leftbracket.com")]
[TestCase("email@rightbracket}.com")]
[TestCase("email@p|pe.com")]
[TestCase("isis@100%.nl")]
[TestCase("email@dollar$.com")]
[TestCase("email@r&amp;d.com")]
[TestCase("email@#hash.com")]
[TestCase("email@wave~tilde.com")]
[TestCase("email@exclamation!mark.com")]
[TestCase("email@question?mark.com")]
[TestCase("email@obelix*asterisk.com")]
[TestCase("email@grave`accent.com")]
[TestCase("email@colon:colon.com")]
[TestCase("email@caret^xor.com")]
[TestCase("email@=qowaiv.com")]
[TestCase("email@plus+.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("email( (nested) )@plus.com")]
[TestCase("email)mirror(@plus.com")]
[TestCase("email@plus.com (not closed comment")]
[TestCase("email(with @ in comment)plus.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith' email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith""email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@mailto:domain.com")]
[TestCase("mailto:mailto:email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("Display Name <email@plus.com> (after name with display)")]
[TestCase("ReDoSaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa")]
public void IsInvalid(string email)
{
    Assert.IsFalse(EmailAddress.IsValid(email), email);
}

[TestCase("w@com")]
[TestCase("w.b.f@test.com")]
[TestCase("w.b.f@test.museum")]
[TestCase("a.a@test.com")]
[TestCase("ab@288.120.150.10.com")]
[TestCase("ab@188.120.150.10")]
[TestCase("ab@1.0.0.10")]
[TestCase("ab@120.25.254.120")]
[TestCase("ab@01.120.150.1")]
[TestCase("ab@88.120.150.021")]
[TestCase("ab@88.120.150.01")]
[TestCase("ab@[120.254.254.120]")]
[TestCase("local@2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334")]
[TestCase("local@[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]")]
[TestCase("2@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("-@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("a2@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("a-b@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("ab@b-de.cc")]
[TestCase("a+b@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("f.f.f@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("ab_c@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("_-_@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("k.haak@12move.nl")]
[TestCase("K.HAAK@12MOVE.NL")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain")]
[TestCase("あいうえお@domain.com")]
[TestCase("local@あいうえお.com")]
[TestCase("firstname.lastname@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@subdomain.domain.com")]
[TestCase("firstname+lastname@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@123.123.123.123")]
[TestCase("email@[123.123.123.123]")]
[TestCase("1234567890@domain.com")]
[TestCase("a@domain.com")]
[TestCase("a.b.c.d@domain.com")]
[TestCase("aap.123.noot.mies@domain.com")]
[TestCase("1@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain-one.com")]
[TestCase("_______@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.topleveldomain")]
[TestCase("email@domain.co.jp")]
[TestCase("firstname-lastname@domain.com")]
[TestCase("firstname-lastname@d.com")]
[TestCase("FIRSTNAME-LASTNAME@d--n.com")]
[TestCase("first-name-last-name@d-a-n.com")]
[TestCase("{local{name{{with{@leftbracket.com")]
[TestCase("}local}name}}with{@rightbracket.com")]
[TestCase("|local||name|with|@pipe.com")]
[TestCase("%local%%name%with%@percentage.com")]
[TestCase("$local$$name$with$@dollar.com")]
[TestCase("&local&&name&with&$@amp.com")]
[TestCase("#local##name#with#@hash.com")]
[TestCase("~local~~name~with~@tilde.com")]
[TestCase("!local!!name!with!@exclamation.com")]
[TestCase("?local??name?with?@question.com")]
[TestCase("*local**name*with*@asterisk.com")]
[TestCase("`local``name`with`@grave-accent.com")]
[TestCase("^local^^name^with^@xor.com")]
[TestCase("=local==name=with=@equality.com")]
[TestCase("+local++name+with+@equality.com")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com (joe Smith)")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith"" email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe\\tSmith"" email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe\""Smith"" email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"Test |<gaaf <email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("MailTo:casesensitve@domain.com")]
[TestCase("mailto:email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <mailto:email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <mailto:email(with comment)@domain.com>")]
[TestCase(@"""With extra < within quotes"" Display Name<email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa")]
public void IsValid(string email)
{
    Assert.IsTrue(EmailAddress.IsValid(email), email);
}
user_22664050

There are a lot of strong answers here. However, I recommend that we take a step back. @Cogwheel answers the question https://stackoverflow.com/a/1374644/388267. Nevertheless, it could be costly in a bulk validation scenario, if many of the email address being validated are invalid. I suggest that we employ a bit of logic before we enter into his try-catch block. I know that the following code could be written using RegEx but that could be costly for new developers to understand. This is my twopence worth:

    public static bool IsEmail(this string input)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(input)) return false;

        // MUST CONTAIN ONE AND ONLY ONE @
        var atCount = input.Count(c => c == '@');
        if (atCount != 1) return false;

        // MUST CONTAIN PERIOD
        if (!input.Contains(".")) return false;

        // @ MUST OCCUR BEFORE LAST PERIOD
        var indexOfAt = input.IndexOf("@", StringComparison.Ordinal);
        var lastIndexOfPeriod = input.LastIndexOf(".", StringComparison.Ordinal);
        var atBeforeLastPeriod = lastIndexOfPeriod > indexOfAt;
        if (!atBeforeLastPeriod) return false;

        // CODE FROM COGWHEEL'S ANSWER: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1374644/388267 
        try
        {
            var addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(input);
            return addr.Address == input;
        }
        catch
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
user_3882670

In case you are using FluentValidation you could write something as simple as this:

public cass User
{
    public string Email { get; set; }
}

public class UserValidator : AbstractValidator<User>
{
    public UserValidator()
    {
        RuleFor(x => x.Email).EmailAddress().WithMessage("The text entered is not a valid email address.");
    }
}

// Validates an user. 
var validationResult = new UserValidator().Validate(new User { Email = "açflkdj" });

// This will return false, since the user email is not valid.
bool userIsValid = validationResult.IsValid;
user_16393850

a little modification to @Cogwheel answer

public static bool IsValidEmail(this string email)
{
  // skip the exception & return early if possible
  if (email.IndexOf("@") <= 0) return false;

  try
  {
    var address = new MailAddress(email);
    return address.Address == email;
  }
  catch
  {
    return false;
  }
}
user_8522430

The most voted answer from @Cogwheel is best answer however i have tried to implement trim() string method so it will trim all user white space from string start to end. Check the code bellow for full example-

bool IsValidEmail(string email)
{
    try
    {
        email = email.Trim();
        var addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(email);
        return addr.Address == email;
    }
    catch
    {
        return false;
    }
}
user_51490920

Another Regex Match answer :

   /// <summary>
   /// Validates the email input
   /// </summary>
   internal static bool ValidateEmail(string _emailAddress)
   { 

        string _regexPattern = @"^(([\w-]+\.)+[\w-]+|([a-zA-Z]{1}|[\w-]{2,}))@"
                + @"((([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\."
                + @"([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])){1}|"
                + @"([a-zA-Z]+[\w-]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,4})$";

        return (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_emailAddress) == false && System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(_emailAddress, _regexPattern))
            ? true
            : false;
    }
user_9634250

There is culture problem in regex in C# rather then js. So we need to use regex in US mode for email check. If you don't use ECMAScript mode, your language special characters are imply in A-Z with regex.

Regex.IsMatch(email, @"^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9_\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?)$", RegexOptions.ECMAScript)
user_28471590

Based on the answer of @Cogwheel i want to share a modified solution that works for SSIS and the "Script Component":

  1. Place the "Script Component" into your Data Flow connect and then open it.
  2. In the section "Input Columns" set the field that contains the E-Mail Adresses to "ReadWrite" (in the example 'fieldName').
  3. Switch back to the section "Script" and click on "Edit Script". Then you need to wait after the code opens.

  4. Place this code in the right method:

    public override void Input0_ProcessInputRow(Input0Buffer Row)
{
    string email = Row.fieldName;

    try
    {
        System.Net.Mail.MailAddress addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(email);
        Row.fieldName= addr.Address.ToString();
    }
    catch
    {
        Row.fieldName = "WRONGADDRESS";
    }
}

Then you can use a Conditional Split to filter out all invalid records or whatever you want to do.

user_37721080

I came here to steal the verification code for the e-mail. Then I saw that the codes in the answers were unnecessarily extended. I believe I wrote the best solution in the shortest way:

public static bool IsEmail(string email)
{
    try
    {
        return new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(email).Address == email && !email.Trim().EndsWith(".");
    }
    catch
    {
        return false;
    }
}
user_24263670

What if you combine multiple solutions to make a perfect code?

i got top 2 Solutions having highest Ranks and Reviews and combined them to get more accurate Answers. its Short, fast and adorable.

    public static bool isValidEmail(string email)
    {
        try
        {
            var addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(email);
            if (addr.Address == email)
            {
                string expression = "\\w+([-+.']\\w+)*@\\w+([-.]\\w+)*\\.\\w+([-.]\\w+)*"; 
                if (Regex.IsMatch(email, expression))
                {
                    if (Regex.Replace(email, expression, string.Empty).Length == 0) 
                        return true; 
                }
                return false;
            }
            return false; 
        }
        catch
        {
            return false;
        }  
    }
user_101355620

I use this one to validate emails often and it works like a charm. This validates that the email must have atleast one character before the @, and at least one character before the "."

public static bool ValidateEmail(string value, bool required, int minLength, int maxLength)
        {
           value = value.Trim();
           if (required == false && value == "") return true;
           if (required && value == "") return false;
           if (value.Length < minLength || value.Length > maxLength) return false;

           //Email must have at least one character before an @, and at least one character before the .
           int index = value.IndexOf('@');
           if (index < 1 || value.LastIndexOf('.') < index + 2) return false;
           return true;
        }
user_74553170

A shorter answer to your question is: Validating" an e-mail address with a reg-ex is something that any internet based service provider should desist from. The possibilities of kinds of domain names and e-mail addresses have increased so much in terms of variety, any attempt at validation, which is not well thought may end up denying some valid users into your system.

However, there is one good library available in C# i.e."Mailkit". Using this one can send a mail to the user inputted email ID and assess the response to take a call on admitting the email ID or not. The library supports the SMTPUTF8 flag, which enables the users to send emails to even the IDN based email addresses.

The longer answer is: There are three RFCs that lay down the foundation for the "Internet Message Format".

  1. RFC 822
  2. RFC 2822 (Supersedes RFC 822)
  3. RFC 5322 (Supersedes RFC 2822)

The RFC 5322, however, defines the e-mail IDs and their naming structure in the most technical manner. That is more suitable laying down the foundation an Internet Standard that liberal enough to allow all the use-cases yet, conservative enough to bind it in some formalism.

However, the e-mail validation requirement from the software developer community, has the following needs -

  • to stave off unwanted spammers
  • to ensure the user does not make inadvertent mistake
  • to ensure that the e-mail ID belongs to the actual person inputting it

They are not exactly interested in implementing a technically all-encompassing definition that allows all the forms (IP addresses, including port IDs and all) of e-mail id. The solution suitable for their use-case is expected to solely ensure that all the legitimate e-mail holders should be able to get through. The definition of "legitimate" differs vastly from technical stand-point (RFC 5322 way) to usability stand-point(this solution). The usability aspect of the validation aims to ensure that all the e-mail IDs validated by the validation mechanism belong to actual people, using them for their communication purposes. This, thus introduces another angle to the validation process, ensuring an actually "in-use" e-mail ID, a requirement for which RFC-5322 definition is clearly not sufficient.

Thus, on practical grounds, the actual requirements boil down to this -

  1. To ensure some very basic validation checks
  2. To ensure that the inputted e-mail is in use

Second requirement typically involves, sending a standard response seeking e-mail to the inputted e-mail ID and authenticating the user based on the action delineated in the response mechanism. This is the most widely used mechanism to ensure the second requirement of validating an "in use" e-mail ID. This does involve round-tripping from the back-end server implementation and is not a straight-forward single-screen implementation, however, one cannot do away with this.

The first requirement, stems from the need that the developers do not want totally "non e-mail like" strings to pass as an e-mail. This typically involves blanks, strings without "@" sign or without a domain name. Given the punycode representations of the domain names, if one needs to enable domain validation, they need to engage in full-fledged implementation that ensures a valid domain name. Thus, given the basic nature of requirement in this regard, validating for "@." is the only apt way of satisfying the requirement.

A typical regex that can satisfy this requirement is: ^[^@\s]+@[^@\s.]+.[^@\s.]+$ The above regex, follows the standard Perl regular-expression standard, widely followed by majority of the programming languages. The validation statement is: <anything except whitespaces and "@" sign>@<anything except whitespaces and "@" sign>.<anything except whitespaces, @ sign and dot>

For those who want to go one step deeper into the more relevant implementations, they can follow the following validation methodology. <e-mail local part>@<domain name>

For <e-mail local part> - Follow the guidelines by the "Universal Acceptance Steering Group" - UASG-026 - https://uasg.tech/download/uasg-028-considerations-for-naming-internationalized-email-mailboxes-en/ For <domain name>, you can follow any domain validation methodology using standard libraries, depending on your programming language. For the recent studies on the subject, follow the document UASG-018A - https://uasg.tech/download/uasg-018a-ua-compliance-of-some-programming-language-libraries-and-frameworks-en/. In addition, those who are interested to know the overall process, challenges and issues one may come across while implementing the Internationalized Email Solution, they can also go through the following RFCs: RFC 6530 (Overview and Framework for Internationalized Email), RFC 6531 (SMTP Extension for Internationalized Email), RFC 6532 (Internationalized Email Headers), RFC 6533 (Internationalized Delivery Status and Disposition Notifications), RFC 6855 (IMAP Support for UTF-8), RFC 6856 (Post Office Protocol Version 3 (POP3) Support for UTF-8), RFC 6857 (Post-Delivery Message Downgrading for Internationalized Email Messages), RFC 6858 (Simplified POP and IMAP Downgrading for Internationalized Email)."

user_152344930
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