How to Validate Email Addresses with Perl

Whatever the reasons for its invalidity, you do want to catch the broken address — to prompt the user to re-inter maybe, or to avoid sending an email that's sure to go nowhere.

In Perl, you can concoct a complicated regular expression, of course; or you turn to a handy module that already has one built in and can check domain names, too.

Validate Email Addresses with Perl

To check email addresses for the well-formedness and validity in a Perl script or program:

• Build email validation into the HTML code if you have users type email addresses into a web form.
• Use Email::Valid->address('') from the Email::Valid CPAN Perl module; see below for details, installation and examples.

Email::Valid Email Address Validation Examples

Assuming $email_address holds the address to be checked, you can check its validity using:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Email::Valid

$email_address = 'me@@example.com';
if (Email::Valid->address($email_address)) {
    # The email address is valid
} else {
    # The email address is not valid
}

You can also have Email::Valid check for valid top-level domains (making sure ".com", ".net", ".cn" or another valid domain name is at the email address's very end). Make sure the Net::Domain::TLD module is installed.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Email::Valid

$email_address = 'me@@example.com';
if (Email::Valid->address(-address  => $email_address,
                          -tldcheck => 1)) {
    # The email address is valid
} else {
    # The email address is not valid
}

Install the Email::Valid Perl Module

To equip your Perl installation with the Email::Valid module for validating email address correctness:

• Open a command prompt.
  • Under Mac and Linux, open the Terminal application, for example.
• Type sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'install Email::Valid' (Mac and Linux) or perl -MCPAN -e 'install Email::Valid'.
• Press Enter.
  • Enter the super user password and press Enter if prompted.
  • Asked Would you like me to configure as much as possible automatically?, choose "yes" unless you know
  • Asked Is it OK to try to connect to the Internet?, enter "yes" as well.

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