Can a hyphen be part of an e mail address

According to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Domain Name System (DNS) specifications, a hyphen (-) is allowed as a character in an email address, but with some limitations.

Here are the rules:

  1. Local part: The local part of an email address (the part before the @ symbol) can contain most ASCII characters, including hyphens (-). However, it cannot start or end with a hyphen.
  2. Domain: The domain part of an email address (the part after the @ symbol) can also contain hyphens, but it's recommended to avoid them to prevent confusion with domain name separators (dots,.).

Here are some examples of valid email addresses with hyphens:

And here are some examples of invalid email addresses with hyphens:

It's worth noting that while hyphens are allowed in email addresses, they can still cause issues with some email clients or servers. For example, some older email clients might not support hyphens in email addresses or might treat them as special characters.

In general, it's a good idea to avoid using hyphens in email addresses if possible, to ensure compatibility with most email clients and servers.