regex taken from jQuery.validate email method doesn't work with my php script

Question

Hi

I have a form with jQuery.validate. It checks if typed email is correct using it's own method. What i would like to achieve is to use the regex from it with my server-side php input validation.

The regex i'm talking about:

/^((([a-z]|\d|[!#\$%&'\*\+\-\/=\?\^_`{\|}~]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])+(\.( [a-z]|\d|[!#\$%&'\*\+\-\/=\?\^_`{\|}~]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])+)*)|((\x22)((((\x20|\x09)*
(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(([\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x7f]|\x21|[\x23-\x5b]|[\x5d-\x7e]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\ uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(\\([\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0d-\x7f]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF]))))*(((\x20|\x09) *(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(\x22)))@((([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD
7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\u00A0 -\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])*([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])))\.)+(([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\
uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF 900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])*([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])))\.?$/

and the error i get when i use it with preg_match:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: PCRE does not support \L, \l, \N, \U, or \u at offset 44 in .../verify.php on line 38

I trully don't know what that means :) so i ask - can anyone help me with that? i need a regex that will equally filter input as the regex above, and will be good with php preg_match.

Many thanks

Answer 1

Oh dear. That regex should be taken out and shot.

The reason your regex fails is that PHP uses a different syntax for Unicode code points.

If you insist on using it for whatever reason, this is what RegexBuddy translates it into:

preg_match('/^((([a-z]|\d|[!#$%&\'*+\-\/=?\^_`{|}~]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])+(\.( [a-z]|\d|[!#$%&\'*+\-\/=?\^_`{|}~]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])+)*)|((\x22)((((\x20|\x09)*(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(([\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x7f]|\x21|[\x23-\x5b]|[\x5d-\x7e]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}- uFDCF\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])|(\\\\([\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0d-\x7f]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}]))))*(((\x20|\x09) *(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(\x22)))@((([a-z]|\d|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])|(([a-z]|\d|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x{00A0} -\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])*([a-z]|\d|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])))\.)+(([a-z]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])|(([a-z]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])*([a-z]|[\x{00A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}])))\.?$/u', $subject)

Answer 2

Your problem is that PHP's regex engine is not the same as javascripts and doesn't support unicode characters in the way javascript's does by the look of that error.