There are a frightening number of systems that don't allow "-", which isn't even an edge case. A lot of people - mostly women - hyphenate their last names on marriage, rather than throw their old name away. My wife did. She legally changed her name when she came of age, and when we met and married years later she said, "I paid for money for my name; I'm not letting it go." (Note: I wasn't pressuring her to take my name.) So she hyphenated it, and has come to regret the decision. She says she should have switched, or not, but the hyphen causes problems everywhere. It's not a legal character in a lot of systems, including some government systems.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 6 days ago (9 children)

It boggles my mind how so many websites and platforms incorrectly say my e-mail address is 'invalid' because it has an apostrophe in it.

No. It is NOT invalid. I have been receiving e-mails for years. You just have a shitty developer.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago (6 children)

worst thing is, the regex to check email has been available for decades and it's fine with apostrophies

[–] sukhmel 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There are many regexes that validate email, and they usually aren't compliant with the RFC, there are some details in the very old answer on SO. So, better not validate and just send a confirmation, than restrict and lock people out, imo

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The article you just mentioned in the comments includes both a completely reasonable and viable regex and binary and library alternatives that are in most languages.

[–] sukhmel 3 points 5 days ago

Reasonable and viable ≠ RFC compliant

This quote summarises my views:

There is some danger that common usage and widespread sloppy coding will establish a de facto standard for e-mail addresses that is more restrictive than the recorded formal standard.

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