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How do I validate the structure of an email account and what are some valid email address examples?

Summary

Understanding the precise structure of a valid email address is crucial for maintaining a clean email list and ensuring high deliverability. Email validation goes beyond a simple syntax check, involving various layers of verification to confirm not just proper formatting but also the address's existence and active status. This process helps to reduce bounce rates and protect your sender reputation by preventing messages from being sent to non-existent or malformed addresses. Implementing robust validation practices at the point of data capture and regularly cleaning your lists can significantly improve your email marketing outcomes.

What email marketers say

Email marketers often approach validation with a pragmatic mindset, balancing strict technical adherence with the practical realities of data collection and deliverability. Their primary goal is to ensure that emails reach legitimate inboxes, avoiding bounces and negative impacts on sender reputation. While acknowledging the complexity of email address standards, marketers seek effective, often automated, solutions to maintain list hygiene and campaign performance.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks asks about methods to validate email account structures to prevent importing malformed addresses, providing examples of problematic inputs.

28 Jan 2021 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from OneSignal explains that email validation involves checking for proper formatting and adherence to standard syntax rules, which is crucial for overall deliverability.

01 Jul 2023 - OneSignal

What the experts say

Experts in email deliverability and internet standards offer a deeper, more nuanced perspective on email address validation. They understand the intricacies of RFCs and the historical evolution of email syntax, recognizing that what is technically 'valid' according to specification might not always be 'deliverable' in practice. Their insights often highlight the challenges of precise regex parsing, the impact of internationalization, and the ongoing debate surrounding email address standards.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks points out that most email addresses, even those that appear undeliverable, are often syntactically valid according to email standards.

28 Jan 2021 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that email validation is far more complex than a simple regex, emphasizing the many legitimate edge cases that a basic format check might miss.

22 Mar 2023 - Word to the Wise

What the documentation says

Official documentation, primarily through RFCs from the IETF, provides the foundational rules for email address structure. These documents detail the allowed characters, segments, and overall format of email addresses. However, the sheer volume and evolution of these specifications mean that a strict, literal interpretation can be complex and sometimes misaligned with practical, real-world usage, especially with the introduction of internationalized domain names.

Technical article

Documentation from IETF.org references RFC 1123, which states that top-level domain names are expected to be alphabetic, highlighting an older standard that has since evolved.

28 Jan 2021 - tools.ietf.org

Technical article

Documentation from Emailregex.com provides a regular expression touted as being 99.99% effective for validating email addresses, acknowledging the difficulty of creating a perfectly comprehensive one.

01 Jan 2021 - emailregex.com

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