Internet (SMTP)

The format of Internet e-mail addresses is defined in RFC 822. MAPI components should handle any address that complies with that standard. However, there is a particular form of RFC 822 address that best encodes MAPI addresses:

display name <e-mail address>

The angle brackets are included as literals. Blanks are common in display names; they need not be quoted. A typical address might look like this one, which belongs to one of the coauthors of RFC 1521:

Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@bellcore.com>

If the display name contains characters that have special meaning in SMTP addresses, such as < or @, the entire display name should be quoted using double quotes. On outbound mail, if the total length of the e-mail address plus display name exceeds 255 characters, the display name should be dropped.