PHP preg_match help

I have been using the following function to test whether email addresses are a valid format for years:

if (preg_match("/^[-a-z0-9~!$%^&*_=+}{\'?]+(\.[-a-z0-9~!$%^&*_=+}{\'?]+)*@([a-z0-9_][-a-z0-9_]*(\.[-a-z0-9_]+)*\.([a-z][a-z]+)|([0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}))(:[0-9]{1,5})?$/i", $var)) {
	// Email is valid
}

Code (markup):

It turns out however, the apostrophe character can legimately occur in the mailbox name (not the domain name). Can anyone modify the above so if an email address is like john.o'smith@example.com it will return valid?

Many thanks,

 

The pattern already works. Test it yourself.

 

Thanks for your reply Alex. However that code was considering apostrophes in email addresses as invalid.

I have resolved the issue by using the filter_var() function that was introduced in PHP 5.2.0.

 

<?php

if (preg_match("/^[-a-z0-9~!$%^&*_=+}{\'?]+(\.[-a-z0-9~!$%^&*_=+}{\'?]+)*@([a-z0-9_][-a-z0-9_]*(\.[-a-z0-9_]+)*\.([a-z][a-z]+)|([0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}))(:[0-9]{1,5})?$/i", "a'lex.roxon@domain.com")) {
	echo 'Email is valid.';
}

?>

Code (markup):

Output: Email is valid.

Didn't change your pattern at all. Tested in PHP 5.3.1.

 

Emm aren't you basically letting everything through up to @domain . . . ?

Why not just use (.+)@

<?php

if (preg_match("/^(.+)@([a-z0-9_][-a-z0-9_]*(\.[-a-z0-9_]+)*\.([a-z][a-z]+)|([0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}))(:[0-9]{1,5})?$/i", "a'lex.roxon@sub.Domain.com.uk")) {
	echo 'Email is valid.';
}

?>

PHP:

I'm just curious myself as to why you need to match: garbage@ ?