Regex for an email address doesn't work

Question

I\'m trying to check if some email address is correct with the following code :

NSPredicate *regexMail = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@\"SELF MATCHES \'.*@.*         


        

Answer 1

Copy paste solution (I added capital letters for the first example):

We get a more practical implementation of RFC 5322 if we omit the syntax using double quotes and square brackets. It will still match 99.99% of all email addresses in actual use today. Source

[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?

  NSString * derivedStandard = @"[A-Za-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\\.[A-Za-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[A-Za-z0-9](?:[A-Za-z0-9-]*[A-Za-z0-9])?\\.)+[A-Za-z0-9](?:[A-Za-z0-9-]*[A-Za-z0-9])?";
  NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF MATCHES %@", derivedStandard];
  BOOL isValid = [predicate evaluateWithObject:emailAddress];

//doesn't fail on ;)
@"asdkfjaskdjfakljsdfasdkfjaskdjfakljsdfasdkfjaskdjfakljsdfasdkfjaskdjfakljsdf"

For those who want to implement full RFC5322

The official standard is known as RFC 5322. It describes the syntax that valid email addresses must adhere to. You can (but you shouldn't--read on) implement it with this regular expression:

(?:[a-z0-9!#$%\&'*+/=?\^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%\&'*+/=?\^_`{|}~-]+)*|"(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21\x23-\x5b\x5d-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])*")@(?:(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?|\[(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?|[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]:(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21-\x5a\x53-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])+)\])

  NSString *rfc5322 = @"(?:[a-z0-9!#$%\\&'*+/=?\\^_`{|}~-]+(?:\\.[a-z0-9!#$%\\&'*+/=?\\^_`{|}~-]+)*|\"(?:[\\x01-\\x08\\x0b\\x0c\\x0e-\\x1f\\x21\\x23-\\x5b\\x5d-\\x7f]|\\\\[\\x01-\\x09\\x0b\\x0c\\x0e-\\x7f])*\")@(?:(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?|\\[(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?|[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]:(?:[\\x01-\\x08\\x0b\\x0c\\x0e-\\x1f\\x21-\\x5a\\x53-\\x7f]|\\\\[\\x01-\\x09\\x0b\\x0c\\x0e-\\x7f])+)\\])";
  NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"SELF MATCHES %@", rfc5322];
  BOOL isValid = [predicate evaluateWithObject:emailAddress];

Above regexps you can test using online regular expression tester