if ( /From:/ ) {
    s/^\w+\:(.*)$/$1/gs;
    push my @addr, Mail::Address->parse($_);
    $address = $addr[0]->address();  
    $debug_text .= "Found address at line $.: $string\n";
}
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Might this work as well and be further simplified?

if (/From:/) {
  m/^\w+:(\S+)$/ && push my @addr, Mail::Address->parse($1);
  $address = $addr[0]->address;
  $debug_text .= "Found $address at line $.\n";
}
[download]

two notes. first, I dont see mention of $string anywhere so I am assuming you meant $address. second, im not sure why you needed to modify $_, when you could just stuff the match into $1, etc. third, semantically I didnt see any reason to say "Found address" when its clear that's what this codelet is doing. :) ymmv of course. also, from perldoc perlop:

       s/PATTERN/REPLACEMENT/egimosx
                   s   Treat string as single line.
                   g   Replace globally, i.e., all occurrences.
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not quite sure why youre using either switch since youre matching a "From: foo@bar.com" not a "From: foo@bar.com baz bletch blah blah From: bar@brak.org".

sorry, this wasnt meant to be a round of perl golf, but there were a few simplifications i caught. :)

brother dep.

minor update:

would it be possible to just do this?

if (/^From:(\S+)$/) {
  push my @addr, Mail::Address->parse($1);
  $address = $addr[0]->address;
  $debug_text .= "Found $address at line $.\n";
} else { next }
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--
transcending "coolness" is what makes us cool.

I would shrink:

push my @addr, Mail::Address->parse($1);
$address = $addr[0]->address;

# to

$address = (Mail::Address->parse($1))[0]->address;
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But that's because I kinda abhor such ephemeral temporary variables. At the very least, that push() is useless.

japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

Lots of items already covered here. But I felt compelled to note that s/^\w+:(.*)$/$1/gs nearly makes me cringe (which is silly because it really isn't "bad" at all). First, s/^\w+://gs gets the point across much better, I think. Second, can't headers have "-" in them so don't you want [-\w]+? Third, I'd strip whitespace after the ":". So:

s/^[-\w]+:\s*//gs
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Better yet, I think you can get both the quoted-printable decoding you want and the mail header parsing you'd like with use MIME::Parser, part of the MIME-tools package.

And if what you're doing is tinkering with a Perl-based mail filter, check out Mail::Audit.

Peace,
-McD

MIME::Parser is a real heavyweight. MIME::Lite is a good alternative.

---

Always keep a song in your heart.
It's like karaoke for the voices in your head.

print "Found $1 at line $.\n"
  if s/^[-\w]+:\s*(.*?)\s*$/($address)=(Mail::Address->parse($1))->add
+ress/eggs;
      # and spam
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But it doesn't work - I get:

Can't call method "address" without a package or object reference

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

disclaimer: My brain is a bit slow at the moment, I'm probably missing something very obvious. Sorry,

Update: thanks to dws for spotting that I'd missed out the print line. I told you my brain is a bit slow. :-)