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Address

property Address: string read write;

Example​

procedure SetMailbox(const Item: TIdEMailAddressItem);
begin
  Item.Address := 'alerts@example.invalid';
end;

Usage​

Address gets or replaces the item's raw mailbox string without parsing, validation, normalization or display-name changes.

Additional Technical Info​

Address is the raw mailbox field of TIdEMailAddressItem. Its getter and setter access the stored String directly.

The setter does not trim whitespace, remove angle brackets, split a display name, unquote a local part, lowercase a domain or check for an at-sign. Empty strings, multiple at-signs, comments, control characters and otherwise malformed values are accepted. No DNS, mailbox or deliverability check occurs.

Assign plain local-part@domain content here. To parse combined header text such as Display Name <local@example.invalid>, assign Text instead and inspect the resulting fields.

Changing Address leaves Name untouched. User and Domain are derived dynamically from the new raw value by scanning backward to the last @. If no at-sign exists, both getters return empty even though Address still contains text.

Reading Text formats Name and Address together. That formatter may add angle brackets or quote the local part, but it does not modify this raw field. A later Text assignment is different: it clears and reparses both fields.

The raw value is used by recipient processing and message-header encoding. Accepting a String here does not mean downstream SMTP servers will accept it. Apply application-level syntax and allow/deny policies before saving externally sourced values.

Malformed and international content​

The implementation operates on Delphi Unicode Strings but its formatter's atom character set is ASCII-oriented. Internationalized local parts and domains require an end-to-end SMTPUTF8/IDNA policy outside this property. Do not assume automatic Punycode conversion or Unicode normalization.

Multiple-at values expose a specific inconsistency: derived reads split at the last at-sign, while the User and Domain setters replace around the first. Normalize to a single at-sign before using component setters.

The property operation itself is O(n) for managed-string assignment and performs no I/O. The containing item is mutable and normally collection-owned; concurrent reads/writes and retained references after list clearing are unsafe.

The source-reviewed example sets a deliberately non-deliverable .invalid address and was not sent.

External references

Created 2026-07-15