Question

I am using C# with jQuery to validate a bunch of emails entered into a form.

public const string 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})$";

This is what I’m using but I seem to be getting wrong entries ? Can anyone assist me ?

Thanks

Answer 1

It looks like you’re double-escaping your backslashes. It’s helpful to use the @ syntax for string declaration to avoid this confusion:

public const string 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})$";

You’ll be closer without the double-escape:

public const string 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})$";

The \[ after the matched @ is probably also a mistake, leaving…

public const string 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})$";