Check if an email address is correct and really exists using PHP
Email Validation in a Nutshell
An Email Address can look right but still be wrong and bounce. MailValidation.io uses in depth email address validation to check if emails really exist without sending any messages.
Checking Formatting with filter_var
You can use Regular Expressions to check if an Email Address is formatted correctly. In PHP there is the built in regex, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
// "not an email" is invalid so its false.
php > var_export(filter_var("not an email", FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));
false
// "foo@a.com" looks like an email, so it passes even though its not real.
php > var_export(filter_var("foo@a.com", FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));
'foo@a.com'
// "foo@gmail.com" passes, gmail is a valid email server,
// but gmail require more than 3 letters for the address.
var_export(filter_var("foo@gmail.com", FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL));
'foo@gmail.com'
You could use it in your code like..
if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
// email matches the pattern
} else {
// email doesnt match the pattern
}
Email Validation Using an API Key
With an API key you wont be limited by how many addresses you can check or how fast you can check them.
$email = "foo@bar.com";
$api_key = ???;
$content = json_encode(['email' => $email]);
$request_context = stream_context_create(array(
'method' => 'POST',
'body' => $content
'http' => array(
'header' => "Authorization: Api-Key " . $api_key
)
));
$result_json = file_get_contents("https://app.mailvalidation.io/a/{team_slug}/validate/api/validate/", false, $request_context);
if (json_decode($result_json, true)['is_valid'] == "true") {
echo("email is valid");
} else {
echo("email is invalid");
}
