JavaScript Email Validation

30 November -0001

After poking around online I found several really crappy email form field validation scripts (to check if an email filled into a form is valid or not). They all checked for illegal characters, the 'at' symbol, and periods in the right place, but none of them seemed to check the top level domain extension to validate it (so jkeane@madirish.nets would validate). I built the following script to check all the rules for email, feel free to use it if you'd like. Use it in a form named 'theForm' on a field named 'email'.

function checkEmail()
{
  var tlds = ".ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al 
  .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax 
  .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj 
  .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bu .bv .bw .by 
  .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl 
  .cm .cn .co .cr .cs .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz 
  .dd .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg 
  .eh .er .es .et .eu .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo 
  .fr .ga .gb .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl 
  .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy 
  .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im 
  .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je .jm .jo .jp 
  .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kp .kr .kw .ky 
  .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu 
  .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm 
  .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw 
  .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl 
  .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg 
  .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py 
  .qa .re .ro .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se 
  .sg .sh .si .sj .sk .sl .sm .sn .so .sr 
  .st .su .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th 
  .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tp .tr .tt .tv 
  .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .um .us .uy .uz .va 
  .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu .wf .ws .ye .yt 
  .yu .za .zm .zr .zw .com .net .org .mil 
  .gov .edu .nato .info .int .name .biz 
  .museum .pro";
  
  var email = document.theForm.email.value;
  email = email.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/, '');
  var rex = new RegExp("^[A-Za-z0-9\.\-_]+@[A-Za-z0-9\.\-_]+\.[A-Za-z]+$")
  var endofString = email.split('.');
  var ending = endofString.length - 1;
  var tld = endofString[ending];
  if (! email.match(rex)) {
    alert('Invalid email address, please try again.');
    return false;
  }
  else if (tlds.search(tld) < 0) {
    alert('Invalid top level domain, please try again.');
    return false;
  }
  else {
    return true;
  }
}