# Best way to parse email recipient lists? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 9, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-parse-email-recipient-lists/75390 "2006-11-09T16:52:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sbraford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@sbraford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sbraford)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-parse-email-recipient-lists/75390/1 "2006-11-09T16:52:15Z")
Hey all, So… I’m trying to parse email recipient lists (entered by hand into the “to”, “cc” and “bcc” fields of a mail app by users). These can obviously come in a wild variety of formats, and I’d like to support as many as possible. The other gotcha - is that I’d like to keep as much name metadata available as possible. Using TMail’s parser - I was under the impression that the name portion in the “to”, “cc”, “bcc” fields gets stripped, down to an array of email addresses. (i.e. otherwise we could use just TMail - please let me know if this is incorrect or if there’s a work around) Here are a few example scenarios (from relatively easy to a little harder): removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) “Bob S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Bob S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) “Jones, Craig” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) “Summer Thomas” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid); “Al Franken” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) “Clinton, Bill” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid); “Obama, Barack” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid); “Jenny McCarthy” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Bob [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), James Blunt [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) etc… Any ideas? I’ve been working up RegEx’s like crazy but my RegEx foo isn’t quite what it used to be. Are there any shortcuts, or do I need one big RegEx many specific ones to match the various scenarios? We’re currently using this RegEx to detect when we have a single properly formatted address (w/o a name attached): [http://tfletcher.com/lib/rfc822.rb](http://tfletcher.com/lib/rfc822.rb) …but that’s only one small portion of the problem. - Shanti ---
**Author:** ![sbraford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@sbraford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sbraford)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-parse-email-recipient-lists/75390/2 "2006-11-09T23:54:39Z")
Shanti, Try: /(\W?([\w\s]+)\W+)?(\w[\w+-.]+@[\w-.]+)\W?/i (with “+” signs in mailbox (like removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid), which are invalid) /(\W?([\w\s]+)\W+)?(\w[\w\-.]+@[\w-.]+)\W?/i (without “+” signs) These should break the addresses down into arrays of matches that you can parse into: display name mailbox domain Let me know if this doesn’t pass the tests. Better yet, send me a unit test and i’ll make it work. 🙂 also: [Ruby | zenspider.com | by ryan davis](http://www.zenspider.com/Languages/Ruby/QuickRef.html#11) Michael Fleet Disinnovate [http://www.disinnovate.com/](http://www.disinnovate.com/) ---
**Author:** ![sbraford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@sbraford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sbraford)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-way-to-parse-email-recipient-lists/75390/3 "2006-11-10T00:57:00Z")
On Fri, 10 Nov 2006, Shanti B. wrote: > “Bob S.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > Bob S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > “Jones, Craig” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > “Summer Thomas” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid); “Al Franken” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > “Clinton, Bill” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid); “Obama, Barack” > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid); “Jenny McCarthy” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > Bob [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), James Blunt > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ``` harp:~ > cat a.rb require 'tmail' require 'yaml' tmail = TMail::Mail::parse <<-msg From removed_email_address@domain.invalid Thu Nov 9 08:55:15 2006 Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:52:17 +0900 From: Shanti B. Reply-To: removed_email_address@domain.invalid To: ruby-talk ML Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby Subject: Best way to parse email recipient lists? Hey all, So... I'm trying to parse email recipient lists (entered by hand ``` into the “to”, “cc” and “bcc” fields of a mail app by users). msg ``` %w( to from cc bcc ).each do |field| list = tmail.send("#{ field }_addrs") || [] phrases = list.map{|a| a.phrase} y field => phrases.zip(list.map{|a| a.to_s}) end harp:~ > ruby a.rb to: - - ruby-talk ML - ruby-talk ML from: - - Shanti B. - Shanti B. cc: [] bcc: [] ``` -a