C# code to validate email address

What about this?

bool IsValidEmail(string email)
{
    var trimmedEmail = email.Trim();

    if (trimmedEmail.EndsWith(".")) {
        return false; // suggested by @TK-421
    }
    try {
        var addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(email);
        return addr.Address == trimmedEmail;
    }
    catch {
        return false;
    }
}

Per Stuart's comment, this compares the final address with the original string instead of always returning true. MailAddress tries to parse a string with spaces into "Display Name" and "Address" portions, so the original version was returning false positives.

To clarify, the question is asking whether a particular string is a valid representation of an e-mail address, not whether an e-mail address is a valid destination to send a message. For that, the only real way is to send a message to confirm.

Note that e-mail addresses are more forgiving than you might first assume. These are all perfectly valid forms:

cog@wheel

"cogwheel the orange"@example.com

123@$.xyz

For most use cases, a false "invalid" is much worse for your users and future proofing than a false "valid". Here's an article that used to be the accepted answer to this question (that answer has since been deleted). It has a lot more detail and some other ideas of how to solve the problem.

Providing sanity checks is still a good idea for user experience. Assuming the e-mail address is valid, you could look for known top-level domains, check the domain for an MX record, check for spelling errors from common domain names (gmail.cmo), etc. Then present a warning giving the user a chance to say "yes, my mail server really does allow 🌮🍳🎁 as an email address."

As for using exception handling for business logic, I agree that is a thing to be avoided. But this is one of those cases where the convenience and clarity may outweigh the dogma.

Besides, if you do anything else with the e-mail address, it's probably going to involve turning it to a MailAddress. Even if you don't use this exact function, you will probably want to use the same pattern. You can also check for specific kinds of failure by catching different exceptions: null, empty, or invalid format.

--- Further reading ---

Documentation for System.Net.Mail.MailAddress

Explanation of what makes up a valid email address

---

This is an old question, but all the answers I've found on SO, including more recent ones, are answered similarly to this one. However, in .Net 4.5 / MVC 4 you can add email address validation to a form by adding the [EmailAddress] annotation from System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations, so I was wondering why I couldn't just use the built-in functionality from .Net in general.

This seems to work, and seems to me to be fairly elegant:

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

class ValidateSomeEmails
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var email = new EmailAddressAttribute();
        email.IsValid("someone@somewhere.com");         //true
        email.IsValid("someone@somewhere.co.uk");       //true
        email.IsValid("someone+tag@somewhere.net");     //true
        email.IsValid("futureTLD@somewhere.fooo");      //true
        
        email.IsValid("fdsa");                          //false
        email.IsValid("fdsa@");                         //false
        email.IsValid("fdsa@fdsa");                     //false
        email.IsValid("fdsa@fdsa.");                    //false

        //one-liner
        if (new EmailAddressAttribute().IsValid("someone@somewhere.com")) 
            return true;
    }
}

---

I use this single liner method which does the work for me-

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
public bool IsValidEmail(string source)
{
    return new EmailAddressAttribute().IsValid(source);
}

Per the comments, this will "fail" if the source (the email address) is null.

public static bool IsValidEmailAddress(this string address) => address != null && new EmailAddressAttribute().IsValid(address);

---

.net 4.5 added System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.EmailAddressAttribute

You can browse the EmailAddressAttribute's source, this is the Regex it uses internally:

const string pattern = @"^((([a-z]|\d|[!#\$%&'\*\+\-\/=\?\^_`{\|}~]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])+(\.([a-z]|\d|[!#\$%&'\*\+\-\/=\?\^_`{\|}~]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])+)*)|((\x22)((((\x20|\x09)*(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(([\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x7f]|\x21|[\x23-\x5b]|[\x5d-\x7e]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(\\([\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0d-\x7f]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF]))))*(((\x20|\x09)*(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(\x22)))@((([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])*([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])))\.)+(([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])*([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])))\.?$";

---

I took Phil's answer from #1 and created this class. Call it like this: bool isValid = Validator.EmailIsValid(emailString);

Here is the class:

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

public static class Validator
{

    static Regex ValidEmailRegex = CreateValidEmailRegex();

    /// <summary>
    /// Taken from http://haacked.com/archive/2007/08/21/i-knew-how-to-validate-an-email-address-until-i.aspx
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private static Regex CreateValidEmailRegex()
    {
        string validEmailPattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|"
            + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)"
            + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";

        return new Regex(validEmailPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
    }

    internal static bool EmailIsValid(string emailAddress)
    {
        bool isValid = ValidEmailRegex.IsMatch(emailAddress);

        return isValid;
    }
}

---

Personally, I would say that you should just make sure there is an @ symbol in there, with possibly a . character. There's many regexes you could use of varying correctness, but I think most of these leave out valid email addresses, or let invalid ones through. If people want to put in a fake email address, they will put in a fake one. If you need to verify that the email address is legit, and that the person is in control of that email address, then you will need to send them an email with a special coded link so they can verify that it indeed is a real address.

---

Short and accurate code

string Email = txtEmail.Text;
if (Email.IsValidEmail())
{
   //use code here 
}

public static bool IsValidEmail(this string email)
{
  string pattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|" + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)" + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";    
  var regex = new Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);    
  return regex.IsMatch(email);
}

---

I think the best way is as follow:

    public static bool EmailIsValid(string email)
    {
        string expression = "\\w+([-+.']\\w+)*@\\w+([-.]\\w+)*\\.\\w+([-.]\\w+)*";

        if (Regex.IsMatch(email, expression))
        {
            if (Regex.Replace(email, expression, string.Empty).Length == 0)
            {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

You can have this static function in a general class.

---

The most elegant way is to use .Net's built in methods.

These methods:

Are tried and tested. These methods are used in my own professional projects.

Use regular expressions internally, which are reliable and fast.

Made by Microsoft for C#. There's no need to reinvent the wheel.

Return a bool result. True means the email is valid.

For users of .Net 4.5 and greater

Add this Reference to your project:

System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations

Now you can use the following code:

(new EmailAddressAttribute().IsValid("youremailhere@test.test"));

Example of use

Here are some methods to declare:

protected List<string> GetRecipients() // Gets recipients from TextBox named `TxtRecipients`
{
    List<string> MethodResult = null;

    try
    {
        List<string> Recipients = TxtRecipients.Text.Replace(",",";").Replace(" ", "").Split(';').ToList();

        List<string> RecipientsCleaned = new List<string>();

        foreach (string Recipient in RecipientsCleaned)
        {
            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Recipient))
            {
                RecipientsNoBlanks.Add(Recipient);

            }

        }

        MethodResult = RecipientsNoBlanks;

    }
    catch//(Exception ex)
    {
        //ex.HandleException();
    }

    return MethodResult;

}


public static bool IsValidEmailAddresses(List<string> recipients)
{
    List<string> InvalidAddresses = GetInvalidEmailAddresses(recipients);

    return InvalidAddresses != null && InvalidAddresses.Count == 0;

}

public static List<string> GetInvalidEmailAddresses(List<string> recipients)
{
    List<string> MethodResult = null;

    try
    {
        List<string> InvalidEmailAddresses = new List<string>();

        foreach (string Recipient in recipients)
        {
            if (!(new EmailAddressAttribute().IsValid(Recipient)) && !InvalidEmailAddresses.Contains(Recipient))
            {
                InvalidEmailAddresses.Add(Recipient);

            }

        }

        MethodResult = InvalidEmailAddresses;

    }
    catch//(Exception ex)
    {
        //ex.HandleException();

    }

    return MethodResult;

}

...and code demonstrating them in action:

List<string> Recipients = GetRecipients();

bool IsValidEmailAddresses = IsValidEmailAddresses(Recipients);

if (IsValidEmailAddresses)
{
    //Emails are valid. Your code here

}
else
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    sb.Append("The following addresses are invalid:");

    List<string> InvalidEmails = GetInvalidEmailAddresses(Recipients);

    foreach (string InvalidEmail in InvalidEmails)
    {
        sb.Append("\n" + InvalidEmail);

    }

    MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString());

}

In addition, this example:

Extends beyond the spec since a single string is used to contain 0, one or many email addresses sperated by a semi-colon ;.

Clearly demonstrates how to use the IsValid method of the EmailAddressAttribute object.

Alternative, for users of a version of .Net less than 4.5

For situations where .Net 4.5 is not available, I use the following solution:

Specifically, I use:

public static bool IsValidEmailAddress(string emailAddress)
{
    bool MethodResult = false;

    try
    {
        MailAddress m = new MailAddress(emailAddress);

        MethodResult = m.Address == emailAddress;

    }
    catch //(Exception ex)
    {
        //ex.HandleException();

    }

    return MethodResult;

}

public static List<string> GetInvalidEmailAddresses(List<string> recipients)
{
    List<string> MethodResult = null;

    try
    {
        List<string> InvalidEmailAddresses = new List<string>();

        foreach (string Recipient in recipients)
        {
            if (!IsValidEmail(Recipient) && !InvalidEmailAddresses.Contains(Recipient))
            {
                InvalidEmailAddresses.Add(Recipient);

            }

        }

        MethodResult = InvalidEmailAddresses;

    }
    catch //(Exception ex)
    {
        //ex.HandleException();

    }

    return MethodResult;

}

---

To be honest, in production code, the best I do is check for an @ symbol.

I'm never in a place to be completely validating emails. You know how I see if it was really valid? If it got sent. If it didn't, it's bad, if it did, life's good. That's all I need to know.

---

I find this regex to be a good trade off between checking for something more than just the @ mark, and accepting weird edge cases:

^[^@\s]+@[^@\s]+(\.[^@\s]+)+$

It will at least make you put something around the @ mark, and put at least a normal looking domain.

---

Email address validation is not as easy as it might seem. It's actually theoretically impossible to fully validate an email address using just a regular expression.

Check out my blog post about it for a discussion on the subject and a F# implementation using FParsec. [/shameless_plug]

---

I just want to point out, that there has been a recent addition to the .NET documentation regarding email validation, also utilitzing Regex operations. A thorough explanation to their implementation can be found there.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/how-to-verify-that-strings-are-in-valid-email-format

For convenience, here is a list of their test results:

//       Valid: david.jones@proseware.com
//       Valid: d.j@server1.proseware.com
//       Valid: jones@ms1.proseware.com
//       Invalid: j.@server1.proseware.com
//       Valid: j@proseware.com9
//       Valid: js#internal@proseware.com
//       Valid: j_9@[129.126.118.1]
//       Invalid: j..s@proseware.com
//       Invalid: js*@proseware.com
//       Invalid: js@proseware..com
//       Valid: js@proseware.com9
//       Valid: j.s@server1.proseware.com
//       Valid: "j\"s\""@proseware.com
//       Valid: js@contoso.中国

---

I summarize all the above answers as of the current year 2021 I wrote for myself this class:

public static class StringExt {
    private const string emailPattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|" 
            + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)" 
            + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";

    public static bool IsValidMailAddress(this string pThis) 
            => pThis is not null 
            && Regex.IsMatch(pThis, emailPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
}

---

Here's my answer -- Phil's solution fails for single letter domains like "someone@q.com". Believe it or not, that's used =) (goes to centurylink, for instance).

Phil's answer is also going to work only with PCRE standard... so C# will take it, but javascript is going to bomb. It's too complex for javascript. So you can't use Phil's solution for mvc validation attributes.

Here's my regex. It'll work nicely with MVC validation attributes. - Everything before the @ is simplified, so that at least javascript will work. I'm okay relaxing validation here as long as exchange server doesn't give me a 5.1.3. - Everything after the @ is Phil's solution modified for single letter domains.

public const string EmailPattern =
        @"^\s*[\w\-\+_']+(\.[\w\-\+_']+)*\@[A-Za-z0-9]([\w\.-]*[A-Za-z0-9])?\.[A-Za-z][A-Za-z\.]*[A-Za-z]$";

For people suggesting using system.net.mail MailMessage(), that thing is WAY to flexible. Sure, C# will accept the email, but then exchange server will bomb with 5.1.3 runtime error as soon as you try to send the email.

---

As mentioned in many answers, the domain of email addresses is complex. I would strongly discourage the use of a regex in this case. Those who match (most) cases are extremely complex to read and therefor to maintain. Furthermore, the still have difficulties supporting all cases, and are slow.

Microsoft's EmailAddress class helps a bit in that respect, but is not perfect either, I would argue. For an open source project I gave it try some years ago, by using a customized EmailParser.

That is used in [EmailAddress]https://github.com/Qowaiv/Qowaiv/blob/master/src/Qowaiv/EmailAddress.cs).

By using this approach, you're not only to validate email addresses, but also by cleaning out multiple formats of display names, getting rid of the mailto:-prefix, and normalizing domain literals based on IP-addresses, and lowercasing everything (note that the local part officially is case sensitive).

Scenario's your solution should support (and the mentioned one does):

[TestCase(null)]
[TestCase("")]
[TestCase("..@test.com")]
[TestCase(".a@test.com")]
[TestCase("ab@sd@dd")]
[TestCase(".@s.dd")]
[TestCase("ab@988.120.150.10")]
[TestCase("ab@120.256.256.120")]
[TestCase("ab@120.25.1111.120")]
[TestCase("ab@[188.120.150.10")]
[TestCase("ab@188.120.150.10]")]
[TestCase("ab@[188.120.150.10].com")]
[TestCase("a@b.-de.cc")]
[TestCase("a@bde-.cc")]
[TestCase("a@bde.c-c")]
[TestCase("a@bde.cc.")]
[TestCase("ab@b+de.cc")]
[TestCase("a..b@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("_@bde.cc,")]
[TestCase("plainaddress")]
[TestCase("plain.address")]
[TestCase("@%^%#$@#$@#.com")]
[TestCase("@domain.com")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("email.domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain@domain.com")]
[TestCase(".email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email.@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email..email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@-domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain-.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com-")]
[TestCase("email@.domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com.")]
[TestCase("email@domain..com")]
[TestCase("email@111.222.333")]
[TestCase("email@111.222.333.256")]
[TestCase("email@[123.123.123.123")]
[TestCase("email@[123.123.123].123")]
[TestCase("email@123.123.123.123]")]
[TestCase("email@123.123.[123.123]")]
[TestCase("email@{leftbracket.com")]
[TestCase("email@rightbracket}.com")]
[TestCase("email@p|pe.com")]
[TestCase("isis@100%.nl")]
[TestCase("email@dollar$.com")]
[TestCase("email@r&d.com")]
[TestCase("email@#hash.com")]
[TestCase("email@wave~tilde.com")]
[TestCase("email@exclamation!mark.com")]
[TestCase("email@question?mark.com")]
[TestCase("email@obelix*asterisk.com")]
[TestCase("email@grave`accent.com")]
[TestCase("email@colon:colon.com")]
[TestCase("email@caret^xor.com")]
[TestCase("email@=qowaiv.com")]
[TestCase("email@plus+.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("email( (nested) )@plus.com")]
[TestCase("email)mirror(@plus.com")]
[TestCase("email@plus.com (not closed comment")]
[TestCase("email(with @ in comment)plus.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith' email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith""email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@mailto:domain.com")]
[TestCase("mailto:mailto:email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("Display Name <email@plus.com> (after name with display)")]
[TestCase("ReDoSaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa")]
public void IsInvalid(string email)
{
    Assert.IsFalse(EmailAddress.IsValid(email), email);
}

[TestCase("w@com")]
[TestCase("w.b.f@test.com")]
[TestCase("w.b.f@test.museum")]
[TestCase("a.a@test.com")]
[TestCase("ab@288.120.150.10.com")]
[TestCase("ab@188.120.150.10")]
[TestCase("ab@1.0.0.10")]
[TestCase("ab@120.25.254.120")]
[TestCase("ab@01.120.150.1")]
[TestCase("ab@88.120.150.021")]
[TestCase("ab@88.120.150.01")]
[TestCase("ab@[120.254.254.120]")]
[TestCase("local@2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334")]
[TestCase("local@[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334]")]
[TestCase("2@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("-@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("a2@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("a-b@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("ab@b-de.cc")]
[TestCase("a+b@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("f.f.f@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("ab_c@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("_-_@bde.cc")]
[TestCase("k.haak@12move.nl")]
[TestCase("K.HAAK@12MOVE.NL")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain")]
[TestCase("あいうえお@domain.com")]
[TestCase("local@あいうえお.com")]
[TestCase("firstname.lastname@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@subdomain.domain.com")]
[TestCase("firstname+lastname@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@123.123.123.123")]
[TestCase("email@[123.123.123.123]")]
[TestCase("1234567890@domain.com")]
[TestCase("a@domain.com")]
[TestCase("a.b.c.d@domain.com")]
[TestCase("aap.123.noot.mies@domain.com")]
[TestCase("1@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain-one.com")]
[TestCase("_______@domain.com")]
[TestCase("email@domain.topleveldomain")]
[TestCase("email@domain.co.jp")]
[TestCase("firstname-lastname@domain.com")]
[TestCase("firstname-lastname@d.com")]
[TestCase("FIRSTNAME-LASTNAME@d--n.com")]
[TestCase("first-name-last-name@d-a-n.com")]
[TestCase("{local{name{{with{@leftbracket.com")]
[TestCase("}local}name}}with{@rightbracket.com")]
[TestCase("|local||name|with|@pipe.com")]
[TestCase("%local%%name%with%@percentage.com")]
[TestCase("$local$$name$with$@dollar.com")]
[TestCase("&local&&name&with&$@amp.com")]
[TestCase("#local##name#with#@hash.com")]
[TestCase("~local~~name~with~@tilde.com")]
[TestCase("!local!!name!with!@exclamation.com")]
[TestCase("?local??name?with?@question.com")]
[TestCase("*local**name*with*@asterisk.com")]
[TestCase("`local``name`with`@grave-accent.com")]
[TestCase("^local^^name^with^@xor.com")]
[TestCase("=local==name=with=@equality.com")]
[TestCase("+local++name+with+@equality.com")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("email@domain.com (joe Smith)")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe Smith"" email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe\\tSmith"" email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"""Joe\""Smith"" email@domain.com")]
[TestCase(@"Test |<gaaf <email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("MailTo:casesensitve@domain.com")]
[TestCase("mailto:email@domain.com")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <mailto:email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("Joe Smith <mailto:email(with comment)@domain.com>")]
[TestCase(@"""With extra < within quotes"" Display Name<email@domain.com>")]
[TestCase("aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa")]
public void IsValid(string email)
{
    Assert.IsTrue(EmailAddress.IsValid(email), email);
}

---

If you really and I mean really want to know if an email address is valid...ask the mail exchanger to prove it, no regex needed. I can provide the code if requested.

General steps are as follows: 1. does email address have a domain name part? (index of @ > 0) 2. using a DNS query ask if domain has a mail exchanger 3. open tcp connection to mail exchanger 4. using the smtp protocol, open a message to the server using the email address as the reciever 5. parse the server's response. 6. quit the message if you made it this far, everything is good.

This is as you can imagine, very expensive time wise and relies on smtp, but it does work.

---

There are a lot of strong answers here. However, I recommend that we take a step back. @Cogwheel answers the question https://stackoverflow.com/a/1374644/388267. Nevertheless, it could be costly in a bulk validation scenario, if many of the email address being validated are invalid. I suggest that we employ a bit of logic before we enter into his try-catch block. I know that the following code could be written using RegEx but that could be costly for new developers to understand. This is my twopence worth:

    public static bool IsEmail(this string input)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(input)) return false;

        // MUST CONTAIN ONE AND ONLY ONE @
        var atCount = input.Count(c => c == '@');
        if (atCount != 1) return false;

        // MUST CONTAIN PERIOD
        if (!input.Contains(".")) return false;

        // @ MUST OCCUR BEFORE LAST PERIOD
        var indexOfAt = input.IndexOf("@", StringComparison.Ordinal);
        var lastIndexOfPeriod = input.LastIndexOf(".", StringComparison.Ordinal);
        var atBeforeLastPeriod = lastIndexOfPeriod > indexOfAt;
        if (!atBeforeLastPeriod) return false;

        // CODE FROM COGWHEEL'S ANSWER: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1374644/388267 
        try
        {
            var addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(input);
            return addr.Address == input;
        }
        catch
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

---

Generally speaking, a regular expression to validate email addresses is not an easy thing to come up with; at the time of this writing, the syntax of an email address must follow a relatively high number of standards and implementing all of them within a regular expression is practically unfeasible!

I highly suggest you to try our EmailVerify.NET, a mature .NET library which can validate email addresses following all of the current IETF standards (RFC 1123, RFC 2821, RFC 2822, RFC 3696, RFC 4291, RFC 5321 and RFC 5322), tests the related DNS records, checks if the target mailboxes can accept messages and can even tell if a given address is disposable or not.

Disclaimer: I am the lead developer for this component.

---

A simple one without using Regex (which I don't like for its poor readability):

bool IsValidEmail(string email)
{
    string emailTrimed = email.Trim();

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(emailTrimed))
    {
        bool hasWhitespace = emailTrimed.Contains(" ");

        int indexOfAtSign = emailTrimed.LastIndexOf('@');

        if (indexOfAtSign > 0 && !hasWhitespace)
        {
            string afterAtSign = emailTrimed.Substring(indexOfAtSign + 1);

            int indexOfDotAfterAtSign = afterAtSign.LastIndexOf('.');

            if (indexOfDotAfterAtSign > 0 && afterAtSign.Substring(indexOfDotAfterAtSign).Length > 1)
                return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}

Examples:

IsValidEmail("@b.com") // false

IsValidEmail("a@.com") // false

IsValidEmail("a@bcom") // false

IsValidEmail("a.b@com") // false

IsValidEmail("a@b.") // false

IsValidEmail("a b@c.com") // false

IsValidEmail("a@b c.com") // false

IsValidEmail("a@b.com") // true

IsValidEmail("a@b.c.com") // true

IsValidEmail("a+b@c.com") // true

IsValidEmail("a@123.45.67.89") // true

It is meant to be simple and therefore it doesn't deal with rare cases like emails with bracketed domains that contain spaces (typically allowed), emails with IPv6 addresses, etc.

---

For the simple email like goerge@xxx.com, below code is sufficient. 

 public static bool ValidateEmail(string email)
        {
            System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex emailRegex = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(@"^([\w\.\-]+)@([\w\-]+)((\.(\w){2,3})+)$");
            System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match emailMatch = emailRegex.Match(email);
            return emailMatch.Success;
        }

---

In case you are using FluentValidation you could write something as simple as this:

public cass User
{
    public string Email { get; set; }
}

public class UserValidator : AbstractValidator<User>
{
    public UserValidator()
    {
        RuleFor(x => x.Email).EmailAddress().WithMessage("The text entered is not a valid email address.");
    }
}

// Validates an user. 
var validationResult = new UserValidator().Validate(new User { Email = "açflkdj" });

// This will return false, since the user email is not valid.
bool userIsValid = validationResult.IsValid;

---

a little modification to @Cogwheel answer

public static bool IsValidEmail(this string email)
{
  // skip the exception & return early if possible
  if (email.IndexOf("@") <= 0) return false;

  try
  {
    var address = new MailAddress(email);
    return address.Address == email;
  }
  catch
  {
    return false;
  }
}

---

The most voted answer from @Cogwheel is best answer however i have tried to implement trim() string method so it will trim all user white space from string start to end. Check the code bellow for full example-

bool IsValidEmail(string email)
{
    try
    {
        email = email.Trim();
        var addr = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(email);
        return addr.Address == email;
    }
    catch
    {
        return false;
    }
}

---

Another Regex Match answer :

   /// <summary>
   /// Validates the email input
   /// </summary>
   internal static bool ValidateEmail(string _emailAddress)
   { 

        string _regexPattern = @"^(([\w-]+\.)+[\w-]+|([a-zA-Z]{1}|[\w-]{2,}))@"
                + @"((([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\."
                + @"([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])\.([0-1]?[0-9]{1,2}|25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9])){1}|"
                + @"([a-zA-Z]+[\w-]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,4})$";

        return (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_emailAddress) == false && System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(_emailAddress, _regexPattern))
            ? true
            : false;
    }

---

private static bool IsValidEmail(string emailAddress)
{
    const string validEmailPattern = @"^(?!\.)(""([^""\r\\]|\\[""\r\\])*""|"
                                     + @"([-a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~]|(?<!\.)\.)*)(?<!\.)"
                                     + @"@[a-z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-z0-9]\.[a-z][a-z\.]*[a-z]$";

    return new Regex(validEmailPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase).IsMatch(emailAddress);
}

---

Check email string is right format or wrong format by System.Text.RegularExpressions:

    public static bool IsValidEmailId(string InputEmail)
    {
        Regex regex = new Regex(@"^([\w\.\-]+)@([\w\-]+)((\.(\w){2,3})+)$");
        Match match = regex.Match(InputEmail);
        if (match.Success)
            return true;
        else
            return false;
    }

    protected void Email_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        String UserEmail = Email.Text;
        if (IsValidEmailId(UserEmail))
        {
            Label4.Text = "This email is correct formate";
        }
        else
        {
            Label4.Text = "This email isn't correct formate";
        }
    }

---

/Using the Internal Regex used in creating the "new EmailAddressAttribute();" component in .Net4.5 >>> using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; //To Validate an Email Address......Tested and Working.

public bool IsEmail(string email)
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(email))
    {   return false;  }
    try
    {
        Regex _regex = new Regex("^((([a-z]|\\d|[!#\\$%&'\\*\\+\\-\\/=\\?\\^_`{\\|}~]|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])" +
                "+(\\.([a-z]|\\d|[!#\\$%&'\\*\\+\\-\\/=\\?\\^_`{\\|}~]|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])+)*)|((\\x22)" +
                "((((\\x20|\\x09)*(\\x0d\\x0a))?(\\x20|\\x09)+)?(([\\x01-\\x08\\x0b\\x0c\\x0e-\\x1f\\x7f]|\\x21|[\\x23-\\x5b]|[\\x5d-\\x7e]|" +
                "[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])|(\\\\([\\x01-\\x09\\x0b\\x0c\\x0d-\\x7f]|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\u" +
                "FDF0-\\uFFEF]))))*(((\\x20|\\x09)*(\\x0d\\x0a))?(\\x20|\\x09)+)?(\\x22)))@((([a-z]|\\d|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])|" +
                "(([a-z]|\\d|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])([a-z]|\\d|-|\\.|_|~|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])*([a-z]|\\d|" +
                "[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])))\\.)+(([a-z]|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900" +
                "-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])([a-z]|\\d|-|\\.|_|~|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFFEF])*([a-z]|[\\u00A0-\\uD7FF\\uF900-\\uFDCF\\uFDF0-\\uFF" +
                "EF])))\\.?$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.ExplicitCapture | RegexOptions.Compiled);
        return _regex.IsMatch(email);
    }
    catch (RegexMatchTimeoutException)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

Also, You can use this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/01escwtf(v=vs.110).aspx

---

I succinctified Poyson 1's answer like so:

public static bool IsValidEmailAddress(string candidateEmailAddr)
{
    string regexExpresion = "\\w+([-+.']\\w+)*@\\w+([-.]\\w+)*\\.\\w+([-.]\\w+)*";
    return (Regex.IsMatch(candidateEmailAddr, regexExpresion)) && 
           (Regex.Replace(candidateEmailAddr, regexExpresion, string.Empty).Length == 0);
}

---

Simple way to identify the emailid is valid or not.

public static bool EmailIsValid(string email)
{
        return Regex.IsMatch(email, @"^([\w-\.]+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([\w-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?)$");
}

---