Validate email address only when entered

[DrumAt5280]

<CFINPUT TYPE="Text" NAME="contactEmail" required="no" "regular_expression" pattern="[A-Za-z0-9_]+@[A-Za-z0-9_]+\.[A-Za-z]+" message="Please enter a valid Email Address">

This code works fine when validating an entered email address, however when nothing is entered it pulls the error message which is strange since the required="no" is in the tag. Any ideas what i am doing wrong?

 

[pl12987]

It may be testing the content, rather than for existence, as you have your regex set up. The field is not really empty. You do have an email address: ""

And of course it is not valid. I'm not sure how to account for a blank field with required = No.

Make required Yes, or drop the regex.....