regex - Use javascript to find email address in a string - Stack Overflow

What I am trying to do is to extract email address out of the string SomeName, First ([email protected])

Here is the code that I already tried:

 var stringToSearchIn="SomeName, First ([email protected])";


 var re = /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/;

var extractedEmail=re.exec(stringToSearchIn);

The variable extractedEmail in the code returns a null.

What I am trying to do is to extract email address out of the string SomeName, First ([email protected])

Here is the code that I already tried:

 var stringToSearchIn="SomeName, First ([email protected])";


 var re = /^(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/;

var extractedEmail=re.exec(stringToSearchIn);

The variable extractedEmail in the code returns a null.

• javascript
• regex

Share Improve this question Follow edited Feb 28, 2013 at 17:13 Jay Walker 4,72355 gold badges5353 silver badges5454 bronze badges asked Feb 28, 2013 at 16:44 FooFoo 4,6061212 gold badges4141 silver badges5858 bronze badges 5

• possible duplicate stackoverflow./questions/11312662/regex-for-email-matching – GorillaMoe Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 16:45
• 2 If the string is always in this format, why not just use ( and ) as delimiters? No need for a regex then. – Marcel Korpel Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 16:52
• @Jay That's a useless edit now, as someone can always retrieve this question's history. – Marcel Korpel Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 17:23
• I had changed the email address before posting it. That email address was non existent. – Foo Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 18:20
• Next time, when you want to use a fictive email adress, let it end with @example.. – Marcel Korpel Commented Feb 28, 2013 at 19:28

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4 Answers 4

Sorted by: Reset to default 7

I tried this and failed

...is not a very useful description of what happenned. At a guess, the re failed to find a match. An obvious cause for this is the regex you've used here will only match a string which ONLY contains an email address - remove the end anchors (^,$) from the regex and you'll get your email address.

var re = /(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))/;

No need for a regex here. If the string is always of the format

Name (email)

You can simply use ( as delimiter:

var stringToSearchIn="SomeName, First ([email protected])";

var extractedEmail = stringToSearchIn.substr(stringToSearchIn.indexOf('(') + 1).slice(0, -1);

This one works for me.

var searchInThisString ="SomeName, First ([email protected]) SomeName2, First2 ([email protected])";

var foundEmails =[];

var emailRegex = /(([^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+(\.[^<>()[\]\\.,;:\s@\"]+)*)|(\".+\"))@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\])|(([a-zA-Z\-0-9]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))/;

var gotcha;

while (match = emailRegex.exec(searchInThisString)){

     //-- store in array the found match email
     foundEmails.push(match[0]);

    //-- remove the found email and continue search if there are still emails
    searchInThisString= searchInThisString.replace(match[0],"")
}

alert(foundEmails.join(" "))

Try this regex

@"^\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*$"

This will accept any of the following:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

and so on...