What is wrong with this email RegExp? - regex

Question

I'm trying to implement this (the one at the bottom of the page) RegExp to validate email addresses with jquery validation plugin.
This is my code:
$.validator.addMethod("email_address", function(value, element, param) {
var email_regexp = new RegExp("[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_{|}~-]+)*#(?:a-z0-9?.)+(?:[A-Z]{2}|com|org|net|edu|gov|mil|biz|info|mobi|name|aero|asia|jobs|museum)\b", "g");
var result = value.match(email_regexp);
return result ? result.length >= param : false;
}, "Invalid email address");
No JS errors are shown, still it doesn't validate anything! Been playing with it for like an hour and can't get this working!
Is there something wrong?
EDIT: I tried also with // delimiters:
$.validator.addMethod("email_address", function(value, element, param) {
var result = value.match(/[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_{|}~-]+)*#(?:a-z0-9?.)+(?:[A-Z]{2}|com|org|net|edu|gov|mil|biz|info|mobi|name|aero|asia|jobs|museum)\b/g);
return result ? result.length >= param : false;
}, "Invalid email address");

Answer 1

~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$
// ^^
That \. will need escaping again for the Javascript string:
~-]+(?:\\.[a-z0-9!#$
// ^^^
Or, preferably, use // delimeters rather than constructing a RegExp object from a string.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/RegExp

Answer 2

Why are you writing a custom regex function for the jQuery Validate plugin when it already has an email rule built-in?
http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation/Methods/email
jQuery:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#myform').validate({
rules: {
field: {
required: true,
email: true
}
}
});
});
HTML:
<form id="myform">
<input type="text" name="field" /> <br/>
<input type="submit" />
</form>
Working Demo:
http://jsfiddle.net/sRwHc/
The default regex function used within the .validate() plugin, FYI:
email: function(value, element) {
// contributed by Scott Gonzalez: http://projects.scottsplayground.com/email_address_validation/
return this.optional(element) || /^((([a-z]|\d|[!#\$%&'\*\+\-\/=\?\^_`{\|}~]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])+(\.([a-z]|\d|[!#\$%&'\*\+\-\/=\?\^_`{\|}~]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])+)*)|((\x22)((((\x20|\x09)*(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(([\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x7f]|\x21|[\x23-\x5b]|[\x5d-\x7e]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(\\([\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0d-\x7f]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF]))))*(((\x20|\x09)*(\x0d\x0a))?(\x20|\x09)+)?(\x22)))#((([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])*([a-z]|\d|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])))\.)+(([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])|(([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])*([a-z]|[\u00A0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF])))$/i.test(value);
}