Validating Email Addresses In PHP (The Right Way) | Hacker News Reader

Validating Email Addresses In PHP (The Right Way)

bobpattersonjr.com

2 pointsnleach4 comments

Please edit the link as Validating Email Addresses The Wrong Way

The right way is

  filter_var('bob@example.com', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

Same for validating the domain. And also : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4486108

FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL probably is a smarter way to go, but I think context matters a lot. If this is for a consumer web service user@hostname isn't going to be 'valid' for the service.

If this is for a consumer web service, user@existing.dns for a non-existing mail box will be 'valid' according to this link, but still completely useless.

Please see the link I posted.

1/ Using PHP PCRE for email validation is considered harmful

2/ Using filter_var for email validation for a web service is useless

3/ Sending a confirmation link by email is the way to go

I think you're missing the point. The idea is to provide incremental knowledge about the validity of the address, both to the user and to the service. user@existing.dns will validate but user@exsiting.dns won't. There is real value in providing that feedback immediately, rather than forcing the user to realize after waiting for an email that will never arrive that they made a trivial mistake.

To be clear, I agree with you 100% that there is no substitute for sending a confirmation email and requiring the user to click-through if you're looking for full confirmation of mailbox validity. My point is that there are simple steps to be taken along that path which complement the confirmation email.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com