Email::Address(3pm) - phpMan

Email::Address(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation Email::Address(3pm)

NAME
Email::Address - RFC 2822 Address Parsing and Creation

SYNOPSIS
use Email::Address;

my @addresses = Email::Address->parse($line);
my $address = Email::Address->new(Casey => 'casey@localhost');

print $address->format;

VERSION
version 1.886

$Id: Address.pm 881 2007-12-19 22:08:35Z rjbs AT cpan.org $

DESCRIPTION
This class implements a regex-based RFC 2822 parser that locates email addresses in
strings and returns a list of "Email::Address" objects found. Alternatley you may con-
struct objects manually. The goal of this software is to be correct, and very very fast.

Package Variables

Several regular expressions used in this package are useful to others. For convenience,
these variables are declared as package variables that you may access from your program.

These regular expressions conform to the rules specified in RFC 2822.

You can access these variables using the full namespace. If you want short names, define
them yourself.

my $addr_spec = $Email::Address::addr_spec;

$Email::Address::addr_spec
This regular expression defined what an email address is allowed to look like.

$Email::Address::angle_addr
This regular expression defines an $addr_spec wrapped in angle brackets.

$Email::Address::name_addr
This regular expression defines what an email address can look like with an optional
preceeding display name, also known as the "phrase".

$Email::Address::mailbox
This is the complete regular expression defining an RFC 2822 emial address with an
optional preceeding display name and optional following comment.

Class Methods

parse
my @addrs = Email::Address->parse(
q[me@local, Casey <me@local>, "Casey" <me@local> (West)]
);

This method returns a list of "Email::Address" objects it finds in the input string.

The specification for an email address allows for infinitley nestable comments. That's
nice in theory, but a little over done. By default this module allows for two (2)
levels of nested comments. If you think you need more, modify the
$Email::Address::COMMENT_NEST_LEVEL package variable to allow more.

$Email::Address::COMMENT_NEST_LEVEL = 10; # I'm deep

The reason for this hardly limiting limitation is simple: efficiency.

Long strings of whitespace can be problematic for this module to parse, a bug which
has not yet been adequately addressed. The default behavior is now to collapse multi-
ple spaces into a single space, which avoids this problem. To prevent this behavior,
set $Email::Address::COLLAPSE_SPACES to zero. This variable will go away when the bug
is resolved properly.

new
my $address = Email::Address->new(undef, 'casey@local');
my $address = Email::Address->new('Casey West', 'casey@local');
my $address = Email::Address->new(undef, 'casey@local', '(Casey)');

Constructs and returns a new "Email::Address" object. Takes four positional arguments:
phrase, email, and comment, and original string.

The original string should only really be set using "parse".

purge_cache
Email::Address->purge_cache;

One way this module stays fast is with internal caches. Caches live in memory and
there is the remote possibility that you will have a memory problem. In the off chance
that you think you're one of those people, this class method will empty those caches.

I've loaded over 12000 objects and not encountered a memory problem.

disable_cache
enable_cache
Email::Address->disable_cache if memory_low();

If you'd rather not cache address parses at all, you can disable (and reenable) the
Email::Address cache with these methods. The cache is enabled by default.

Instance Methods

phrase
my $phrase = $address->phrase;
$address->phrase( "Me oh my" );

Accessor and mutator for the phrase portion of an address.

address
my $addr = $address->address;
$addr->address( "me AT PROTECTED.com" );

Accessor and mutator for the address portion of an address.

comment
my $comment = $address->comment;
$address->comment( "(Work address)" );

Accessor and mutator for the comment portion of an address.

original
my $orig = $address->original;

Accessor for the original address found when parsing, or passed to "new".

host
my $host = $address->host;

Accessor for the host portion of an address's address.

user
my $user = $address->user;

Accessor for the user portion of an address's address.

format
my $printable = $address->format;

Returns a properly formatted RFC 2822 address representing the object.

name
my $name = $address->name;

This method tries very hard to determine the name belonging to the address. First the
"phrase" is checked. If that doesn't work out the "comment" is looked into. If that
still doesn't work out, the "user" portion of the "address" is returned.

This method does not try to massage any name it identifies and instead leaves that up
to someone else. Who is it to decide if someone wants their name capitalized, or if
they're Irish?

Overloaded Operators

stringify
print "I have your email address, $address.";

Objects stringify to "format" by default. It's possible that you don't like that idea.
Okay, then, you can change it by modifying $Email:Address::STRINGIFY. Please consider
modifying this package variable using "local". You might step on someone else's toes
if you don't.

{
local $Email::Address::STRINGIFY = 'address';
print "I have your address, $address.";
# geeknest.com
}
print "I have your address, $address.";
# "Casey West" <casey AT geeknest.com>

Did I Mention Fast?

On his 1.8GHz Apple MacBook, rjbs gets these results:

$ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 5
Rate Mail::Address Email::Address
Mail::Address 2.59/s -- -44%
Email::Address 4.59/s 77% --

$ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 25
Rate Mail::Address Email::Address
Mail::Address 2.58/s -- -67%
Email::Address 7.84/s 204% --

$ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 50
Rate Mail::Address Email::Address
Mail::Address 2.57/s -- -70%
Email::Address 8.53/s 232% --

...unfortunately, a known bug causes a loss of speed the string to parse has certain known
characteristics, and disabling cache will also degrade performance.

PERL EMAIL PROJECT
This module is maintained by the Perl Email Project

<http://emailproject.perl.org/wiki/Email::Address>