This utility takes away the risk that an email will be formatted incorrectly by the person inputting it. This utility will check the format of the email and then return true if it is correct or false if it is not formatted correctly. Thus, you can use it as a conditional.

For example, I use it as a test where if the email address is formatted correctly, the program proceeds and if it is not formatted correctly, the program halts and prints out an error message or input box for them to re-enter it:

	if(&check_email($FORM{'email'})) {
	    Email properly formatted, 
	    proceed with program.
	    This proceed can be a few 
	    lines long or hundreds
	    of lines long, as in a 
	    registration for a service.
	} else {
	    Email not properly formatted, 
	    print warning/error page.
	}

Here is how you use this utility:

Either cut and paste this subroutine into your own script or "require" this file by placing it in the same directory as your script and placing the following line anywhere before the subroutine is first called:

Now you are ready to use it. The subroutine needs one parameter passed to it. This is the email address you want the format checked for.

Here are some of the mistakes that this utility will catch and return false for:

• If the form is submitted with NO email address, it returns false as the email address is mandatory
• somewhere@something
• somewhere@@something
• somewhere@something..com
• somewhere.@something.com
• somewhere@s@omething.com

NOTE: This subroutine does not check to see if the email address actually exists, it only checks to see if the email address is in the proper format.