5 Ways to Implement Email Validation in Angular

Validating email inputs in Angular is fundamental for maintaining data quality and user trust. We will explore five common implementation methods, complete with code snippets, before examining their pitfalls and how Abstract API provides a more robust solution to overcome them.

How to Implement Email Validators in Angular

Here are four common ways to validate email addresses in your Angular applications. Each method suits different project needs, from simple reactive forms to custom business logic enforcement.

Reactive Forms with Validators.email

This approach uses the built-in "Validators.email" from Angular’s reactive forms module. It wires in a pattern that conforms to RFC standards for email syntax. This includes rules for length, where the total length must not exceed 254 characters and the local part must be 64 characters or fewer. It also checks for allowed symbols and hyphen rules within the domain. The compiled regex is quite comprehensive.

import { FormControl, Validators } from '@angular/forms';
email = new FormControl('', [Validators.required, Validators.email]);

Template-driven Forms with HTML5 'type=email'

For template-driven forms, you can set the input "type" attribute to "email". Angular automatically attaches the same email validator that "Validators.email" provides. This process works entirely from the template metadata, so no extra component code is necessary. The control’s status automatically flips to "INVALID" when the browser's pattern check fails.

<form #f="ngForm">
  <input type="email" name="email" ngModel required>
</form>

Custom Synchronous Validator

You can write a custom function for more specific validation rules. The function receives an "AbstractControl" and returns either "null" if the value is valid or a "ValidationErrors" object if it is not. The example below shows a validator that only permits emails from a specific corporate domain, "@mycorp.com".

This function attaches directly to a reactive form control. You can also reuse it in template-driven flows by registration as a directive. The pattern can enforce any business rule, such as a SaaS tenant suffix or a block on disposable domains.

import { AbstractControl, ValidationErrors } from '@angular/forms';

export function corporateEmailValidator(control: AbstractControl): ValidationErrors | null {
  const ok = /^[a-z0-9._%+-]+@mycorp\.com$/i.test(control.value || '');
  return ok ? null : {corporateEmail: true};
}

// Attach it in a reactive form:
email = new FormControl('', [Validators.required, corporateEmailValidator]);

Third-party Library: ng2-validation

The "ng2-validation" package is a third-party library that bundles several common validators, including one for email. After installation, you import "CustomValidators" and add "CustomValidators.email" to your form control. This validator internally delegates to its own pattern. This method provides one-liner use and the benefit of centralized updates from the package maintainer.

// Installation
npm i ng2-validation

// Code
import { CustomValidators } from 'ng2-validation';
email = this.fb.control('', [Validators.required, CustomValidators.email]);

Challenges of Implementing Email Validators in Angular

These common validation methods introduce practical problems. The issues range from inconsistent browser behavior to incomplete validation logic, which can compromise data integrity and the user experience.

• The built-in Validators.email uses a shallow regex. It incorrectly rejects valid emails with accents or Unicode characters because it fails to follow modern RFC standards, which creates a poor user experience.
• The Validators.email pattern is also too permissive. It allows addresses without a top-level domain, like "user@domain", to pass validation. This leads to bounced emails and requires extra server-side checks.
• With template-driven forms, Angular’s checks can diverge from the browser’s native HTML5 validation. An email valid in Chrome might fail Angular’s validator, or vice-versa. This creates inconsistent behavior that is difficult to test.
• The core validator lacks configuration options. To add advanced rules like MX record checks or support international domains, you must write custom validators. This approach scatters logic across the application and complicates long-term maintenance.