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;

DESCRIPTION
    This class implements a complete RFC 2822 parser that locates email
    addresses in strings and returns a list of "Email::Address" objects
    found. Alternatley you may construct 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.

    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.

  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@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@geeknest.com>

  Did I Mention Fast?
    On my 877Mhz 12" Apple Powerbook I can run the distributed benchmarks
    and get results like this.

      $ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 5 
                     s/iter  Mail::Address Email::Address
      Mail::Address    1.59             --           -31%
      Email::Address   1.10            45%             --
      $ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 25
                     s/iter  Mail::Address Email::Address
      Mail::Address    1.58             --           -60%
      Email::Address  0.630           151%             --
      $ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 50
                     s/iter  Mail::Address Email::Address
      Mail::Address    1.58             --           -65%
      Email::Address  0.558           182%             --

SEE ALSO
    Email::Simple, perl.

AUTHOR
    Casey West, <casey@geeknest.com>.

COPYRIGHT
      Copyright (c) 2004 Casey West.  All rights reserved.
      This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
      under the same terms as Perl itself.