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<H2><A NAME="SECTION0014290000000000000000">
12.2.9 Miscellaneous utilities</A>
</H2>
<A NAME="module-email.Utils"><!--z--></A>
<P>
There are several useful utilities provided with the <tt class="module">email</tt>
package.
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3650' class="function">quote</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>str</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a new string with backslashes in <var>str</var> replaced by two
backslashes, and double quotes replaced by backslash-double quote.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3651' class="function">unquote</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>str</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Return a new string which is an <i>unquoted</i> version of <var>str</var>.
If <var>str</var> ends and begins with double quotes, they are stripped
off. Likewise if <var>str</var> ends and begins with angle brackets, they
are stripped off.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3652' class="function">parseaddr</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>address</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Parse address - which should be the value of some address-containing
field such as <span class="mailheader">To:</span> or <span class="mailheader">Cc:</span> - into its constituent
<i>realname</i> and <i>email address</i> parts. Returns a tuple of that
information, unless the parse fails, in which case a 2-tuple of
<code>('', '')</code> is returned.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3653' class="function">formataddr</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>pair</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
The inverse of <tt class="method">parseaddr()</tt>, this takes a 2-tuple of the form
<code>(realname, email_address)</code> and returns the string value suitable
for a <span class="mailheader">To:</span> or <span class="mailheader">Cc:</span> header. If the first element of
<var>pair</var> is false, then the second element is returned unmodified.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3654' class="function">getaddresses</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>fieldvalues</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
This method returns a list of 2-tuples of the form returned by
<code>parseaddr()</code>. <var>fieldvalues</var> is a sequence of header field
values as might be returned by <tt class="method">Message.get_all()</tt>. Here's a
simple example that gets all the recipients of a message:
<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
from email.Utils import getaddresses
tos = msg.get_all('to', [])
ccs = msg.get_all('cc', [])
resent_tos = msg.get_all('resent-to', [])
resent_ccs = msg.get_all('resent-cc', [])
all_recipients = getaddresses(tos + ccs + resent_tos + resent_ccs)
</pre></div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3655' class="function">parsedate</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>date</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Attempts to parse a date according to the rules in <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81482'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a>.
however, some mailers don't follow that format as specified, so
<tt class="function">parsedate()</tt> tries to guess correctly in such cases.
<var>date</var> is a string containing an <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81484'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a> date, such as
<code>"Mon, 20 Nov 1995 19:12:08 -0500"</code>. If it succeeds in parsing
the date, <tt class="function">parsedate()</tt> returns a 9-tuple that can be passed
directly to <tt class="function">time.mktime()</tt>; otherwise <code>None</code> will be
returned. Note that fields 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not
usable.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3656' class="function">parsedate_tz</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>date</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Performs the same function as <tt class="function">parsedate()</tt>, but returns
either <code>None</code> or a 10-tuple; the first 9 elements make up a tuple
that can be passed directly to <tt class="function">time.mktime()</tt>, and the tenth
is the offset of the date's timezone from UTC (which is the official
term for Greenwich Mean Time)<A NAME="tex2html111"
HREF="#foot50537"><SUP>12.2</SUP></A>. If the input
string has no timezone, the last element of the tuple returned is
<code>None</code>. Note that fields 6, 7, and 8 of the result tuple are not
usable.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3657' class="function">mktime_tz</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>tuple</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Turn a 10-tuple as returned by <tt class="function">parsedate_tz()</tt> into a UTC
timestamp. It the timezone item in the tuple is <code>None</code>, assume
local time. Minor deficiency: <tt class="function">mktime_tz()</tt> interprets the
first 8 elements of <var>tuple</var> as a local time and then compensates
for the timezone difference. This may yield a slight error around
changes in daylight savings time, though not worth worrying about for
common use.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3658' class="function">formatdate</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><big>[</big><var>timeval</var><big>[</big><var>, localtime</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Returns a date string as per <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81486'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a>, e.g.:
<P>
<div class="verbatim"><pre>
Fri, 09 Nov 2001 01:08:47 -0000
</pre></div>
<P>
Optional <var>timeval</var> if given is a floating point time value as
accepted by <tt class="function">time.gmtime()</tt> and <tt class="function">time.localtime()</tt>,
otherwise the current time is used.
<P>
Optional <var>localtime</var> is a flag that when <code>True</code>, interprets
<var>timeval</var>, and returns a date relative to the local timezone
instead of UTC, properly taking daylight savings time into account.
The default is <code>False</code> meaning UTC is used.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3659' class="function">make_msgid</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><big>[</big><var>idstring</var><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Returns a string suitable for an <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81488'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a>-compliant
<span class="mailheader">Message-ID:</span> header. Optional <var>idstring</var> if given, is
a string used to strengthen the uniqueness of the message id.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3660' class="function">decode_rfc2231</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>s</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Decode the string <var>s</var> according to <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81490'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2231.html">RFC 2231</a>.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3661' class="function">encode_rfc2231</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>s</var><big>[</big><var>, charset</var><big>[</big><var>, language</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Encode the string <var>s</var> according to <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81492'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2231.html">RFC 2231</a>. Optional
<var>charset</var> and <var>language</var>, if given is the character set name
and language name to use. If neither is given, <var>s</var> is returned
as-is. If <var>charset</var> is given but <var>language</var> is not, the
string is encoded using the empty string for <var>language</var>.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3662' class="function">decode_params</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>params</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Decode parameters list according to <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81494'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2231.html">RFC 2231</a>. <var>params</var> is a
sequence of 2-tuples containing elements of the form
<code>(content-type, string-value)</code>.
</dl>
<P>
The following functions have been deprecated:
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3663' class="function">dump_address_pair</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>pair</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
<div class="versionnote"><b>Deprecated since release 2.2.2.</b>
Use <tt class="function">formataddr()</tt> instead.</div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3664' class="function">decode</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>s</var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
<div class="versionnote"><b>Deprecated since release 2.2.2.</b>
Use <tt class="method">Header.decode_header()</tt> instead.</div>
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-3665' class="function">encode</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>s</var><big>[</big><var>, charset</var><big>[</big><var>, encoding</var><big>]</big><big>]</big>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
<div class="versionnote"><b>Deprecated since release 2.2.2.</b>
Use <tt class="method">Header.encode()</tt> instead.</div>
</dl>
<P>
<BR><HR><H4>Footnotes</H4>
<DL>
<DT><A NAME="foot50537">... Time)</A><A
href="module-email.Utils.html#tex2html111"><SUP>12.2</SUP></A></DT>
<DD>Note that the sign of the timezone
offset is the opposite of the sign of the <code>time.timezone</code>
variable for the same timezone; the latter variable follows the
POSIX standard while this module follows <a class="rfc" id='rfcref-81471'
href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822.html">RFC 2822</a>.
</DD>
</DL>
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