Re: Syntax check a string as a valid email address

On 10/14/2014 7:46 PM, John Yeung wrote:

On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 2:27 PM, Vinay Gavankar wrote:

Is there an API or a service program I can use to check just the syntax of
a string to be a valid email address?

While regex is a very nice tool to have in the toolbox, if it's not
already in the toolbox, this is a task that, in my opinion, is not bad
just using RPG's BIFs.

Usually, when I do this sort of thing, it's because I want to prevent
typos, not because I want to guarantee the address is deliverable. For
that use case, I prefer to scan for '@' or perhaps an '@' and a '.'

I guess it might depend on precisely what you
want to accept as "valid syntax" of an e-mail address, but for basic
"eyeball" tests, %SCAN goes a long way. Maybe throw in %CHECK if
you're so inclined.

Valid is not in the eye of the beholder and not even in the eye of
RFC822. Valid is in the eye of the issuer. Well, one definition of
'valid' anyway. While le_maître_Hélène.Renée_O'Connor@xxxxxxxxx might
be a legal, RFC822 compliant address, Google won't issue that address to
her. Wanadoo.fr will, though. No one is going to issue the legal but
useless "@"@co The point is that a parser might accept it but the email
provider won't.

Anyway, an example of an RFC822 regex can be seen here:
http://ex-parrot.com/~pdw/Mail-RFC822-Address.html
--buck