How to check for a valid EMail Address format in Delphi

Now a days most of applications have facility to send Email to Users with some information. So before send Email we generally check for valid Email address format. Here I have 2 approaches how to validate an Email address format in Delphi.

1. Validating Email addresses format using Regular Expression

A regular expression is a special text that we can use as a search pattern. So for this we can use a regular expression string to check Email address syntax. And Delphi XE or later versions provide TRegEx class to use regular expression functions. So we can use this approach only on Delphi XE or latter versions. But for this we have to use System.RegularExpressions unit in Uses part. 

....

    function IsMatch(const Input, Pattern: string): boolean;

    function IsValidEmailRegEx(const EmailAddress: string): boolean;

....

function TForm1.IsMatch(const Input, Pattern: string): boolean;

begin

  Result := TRegEx.IsMatch(Input, Pattern);

end;

function TForm1.IsValidEmailRegEx(const EmailAddress: string): boolean;

const

  EMAIL_REGEX = '^((?>[a-zA-Z\d!#$%&''*+\-/=?^_`{|}~]+\x20*|"((?=[\x01-\x7f])'

             +'[^"\\]|\\[\x01-\x7f])*"\x20*)*(?<angle><))?((?!\.)'

             +'(?>\.?[a-zA-Z\d!#$%&''*+\-/=?^_`{|}~]+)+|"((?=[\x01-\x7f])'

             +'[^"\\]|\\[\x01-\x7f])*")@(((?!-)[a-zA-Z\d\-]+(?<!-)\.)+[a-zA-Z]'

             +'{2,}|\[(((?(?<!\[)\.)(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[01]?\d?\d))'

             +'{4}|[a-zA-Z\d\-]*[a-zA-Z\d]:((?=[\x01-\x7f])[^\\\[\]]|\\'

             +'[\x01-\x7f])+)\])(?(angle)>)$';

begin

  Result := IsMatch(EmailAddress, EMAIL_REGEX);

end;

....

Use of above functions....

procedure TForm1.btnValidateEmailregxClick(Sender: TObject);

begin

  if IsValidEmailRegEx(EditEmail.Text) then

    ShowMessage('Valid Email Address')

  else

    ShowMessage('InValid Email Address');

end;

2. To check Email address format manually with a user defined function in Delphi

In this part I have created a function in Delphi to check all characters of the Email address that the character is a valid character for Email or not.

.....

    function IsValidEmail(const Value: string): boolean;

.....

function TForm1.IsValidEmail(const Value: string): boolean;

  function CheckAllowed(const s: string): boolean;

  var

    i: integer;

  begin

    Result:= False;

    for i:= 1 to Length(s) do

    begin

      // illegal char - no valid address

      if not (s[i] in ['a'..'z','A'..'Z','0'..'9','_','-','.','+']) then

        Exit;

    end;

    Result:= True;

  end;

var

  i: integer;

  namePart, serverPart: string;

begin

  Result:= False;

  i:= Pos('@', Value);

  if (i = 0) then

    Exit;

  if(pos('..', Value) > 0) or (pos('@@', Value) > 0) or (pos('.@', Value) > 0)then

    Exit;

  if(pos('.', Value) = 1) or (pos('@', Value) = 1) then

    Exit;

  namePart:= Copy(Value, 1, i - 1);

  serverPart:= Copy(Value, i + 1, Length(Value));

  if (Length(namePart) = 0)  or (Length(serverPart) < 5)    then

    Exit;                      // too short

  i:= Pos('.', serverPart);

  // must have dot and at least 3 places from end

  if (i=0) or (i>(Length(serverPart)-2)) then

    Exit;

  Result:= CheckAllowed(namePart) and CheckAllowed(serverPart);

end;

.....

procedure TForm1.btnValidateEmailClick(Sender: TObject);

begin

  if IsValidEmail(EditEmail.Text) then

    ShowMessage('Valid Email Address')

  else

    ShowMessage('InValid Email Address');

end;

Please note that 1st approach will not work on Delphi versions before Delphi XE because handling of regular expression functions are introduced from Delphi XE. So for Delphi 2010, 2006, 7, 6 or lower versions use 2nd approach to validate a Email address.