Regex works in javascript but not in PHP

Question

I have a regexp to check email addresses that works in Javascript:

var re = /^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$/; 
"[email protected]".search(re); // returns 0

But when I use preg_match() in PHP, using the same regexp and email it doesn't work!

$re = "/^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$/";
echo preg_match($re,"[email protected]");
// echoes 0 - not 1!!

EDIT

Okay, so I have to add more detail.

The full code is here:

    $re = '/^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w\+\%\#\!\$\'\*\/\=\?\^\`\{\|\}\~]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$/';

    if(is_array($recipients)){
        for($i=0;$i<count($recipients);$i++){
            echo preg_match($re,$recipients[$i]) . " - " . $recipients[$i] . "<br />";
        }
    }

When I just do the preg_match() (outside of the for loop), it will match the pattern properly. But if it's in this loop, then it won't validate!

No [email protected]? (Not to mention %,_ et al.) I'm a moderately sad panda. — Piskvor left the building
– Piskvor left the building, Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 15:42
Sorry piskvor, added support for a few more symbols according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_address#Syntax — xyhhx
– xyhhx, Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 15:54
Use a foreach, and consider filter_var($mail, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) instead. Your list of addresses most likely contains a linebreak or something. Give us a var_dump(). — mario
– mario, Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 16:00
Thank you mario! There was extra whitespace in the email addresses after the first one. I will use filter_var($mail, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) in place of preg_match in this case — xyhhx
– xyhhx, Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 16:04

Brad Christie · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-13 15:42:05Z

4

You're forgetting that backslashes have special meaning in PHP when used within a double-quoted string.

Have you even echo $re; just to confirm the patter is what you expect it to be? I recommend switching to a single-quoted string for the pattern, or make sure you escape every \.

$re = "/^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$/"
$re = '/^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$/';

BTW, as others have mentioned, it does return 1.

I thought I would bring up escaping as it (even if not in this instance) can or will be an issue with patterns when in double quotes.

answered Jan 13, 2012 at 15:42

Brad Christie

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5 Comments

Linus Kleen Over a year ago

That's only partially correct. For invalid escape sequences, PHP returns the input. echo "\w" actually outputs "\w".

Brad Christie Over a year ago

@LinusKleen: Agreed, I've added a bit more explicit message to the bottom of my answer, but thanks for the feedback.

xyhhx Over a year ago

I echoed it and it's what I expected. I switched to single quotes, still no go.

Brad Christie Over a year ago

@Martin: It has to be something on your end. I tried it (and posted the demo from ideone) that results in 1. Are there any other moving parts?

Brad Christie Over a year ago

@Martin:What's recipients hold for information? Any spaces (maybe run it through a trim() before testing?)

mario · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-01 20:33:36Z

0

It's commonly advised to use PHPs builtin regex for email validation, which has broader coverage of syntax variations:

filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)

See filter_var.
But btw, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL is implemented using a regex too. See https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/ext/filter/logical_filters.c#L522 for that.

Not relevant for the whitespace issue you originally had, though.

answered Mar 1, 2013 at 20:33

community wiki

mario

1 Comment

xyhhx Over a year ago

I'm accepting this answer, as it is the correct way to validate an email. This, coupled with the trim() solution, solved my answer.

Ilia Choly · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-13 15:50:03Z

0

You need to use single quotes so escape characters are ignored.

$re = '/^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$/';
preg_match_all($re, '[email protected]', $arr, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);
var_dump($arr);

answered Jan 13, 2012 at 15:50

Ilia Choly

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