Stopping someone from posting an email address in a text field

datona

I am wondering if there is any way to check the input of a textarea box to make sure there are not email addresses in it.
I know there is probably no way to stop someone from posting something like: myemailATSIGNmydomain.com but was hoping I could cut off some basic variations.

Thanks everyone.

cockney

you can search the textbox input input for '@' and pass any matching strings to an email validate function ... if it comes back as a valid email address then replace it with 'email address deleted' or something.

adamsgavin

To stop email addresses being inserted in the form field, I'd do a bit of validation. Instead of checking that the email address is there try doing the opposite and check to see if there isnt a valid email address.

datona

Cockney and adamsgavin,

You both seem to have good ideas but I was wondering if I could get some sort of an idea as to where to start searching for code for this. I am not that experienced in php so any help would be great.
Thanks

cockney

you better just start experimenting. Refer to the php manual for a list of functions and how to use them.

You'll want to refer to the string functions like stristr() & str_replace() ........

as far as email validation goes, you can find plenty of code snippets to download.

adamsgavin

ill have a mess about with a few bits of code and post something this evening to give you some guidance assuming you dont have anything working between now and then

datona

I appreciate this adamsgavin.
I have not a clue how to do this. Any help would be greatly welcomed.