Which solution is better, using the built in validation filter_var('email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) or a custom function?
Thanks!
views:
40answers:
4
+1
A:
Filter var for email remove all characters, except letters, digits and !#$%&'*+-/=?^_`{|}~@.[]. Now it is up to your whether you want to go with this filtration or create a custom solution.
And here is an excellent article on that:
Input Validation: Using filter_var() Over Regular Expressions
Sarfraz
2010-07-30 09:30:03
The *santizing* filter does, but not the *validating* filter. Without being sanitized, a "valid" email (according to the filter) can still contain characters other than those listed above.
salathe
2010-07-30 11:09:45
+2
A:
Custom validation gives you more control over how far you want to go with this. What is and is not valid as an e-mail address is more complex than you might think, and most of the time, it is better to be too lax with this than too strict. After all, a syntactically valid e-mail address doesn't guarantee that the account actually exists, let alone that it's being actively used. Something like, it must contain one @, at least one dot after the @, at least one character before the @, and none of the illegal characters, is probably good enough in most cases.
tdammers
2010-07-30 09:35:04
PHP does not validate email addresses according to the official RFC (I can't find a reference for this right now, but it came up here recently). Even though `FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL` is probably good enough most of the time, I'd recommend against it and either go with an RFC compliant checker or, as you said, take it easy.
deceze
2010-07-30 09:41:41
Oh, here we go: http://svn.php.net/repository/php/php-src/branches/PHP_5_3/ext/filter/logical_filters.c Look for the regex in `php_filter_validate_email`. It's much too short to be fully RFC compliant. :)
deceze
2010-07-30 09:47:42
My point exactly. RFC compliant doesn't mean it exists and works. Also, I'd be surprised to hear that all mail agents are RFC compliant.
tdammers
2010-07-30 10:01:23
+2
A:
PHP's filter_var might be satisfactory for most applications, but if you want to compare performance and validity, look at this site http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9585 to understand what RFC 2822-compliance means.
stillstanding
2010-07-30 10:22:47