Can you have a '+' in an email address?

[kapow]

Can you have a '+' in an email address?

A client has asked me to modify his email fowarding to an address with a '+' in it - and it doesn't seem to work.
I've never seen a '+' in an email address. Can this be done?

[kwasher]

Some hosts make use of the + sign in the pop3 source username

as in

emailusername+domain.com

but you can typically substitue an @ for the +

[encyclo]

You can use a plus sign (+) in the first part of an address, but that can confuse control panels when organizing forwards - specifically due to the issue indicated by kwasher. Of course, in this case you can't put two @ signs, so you might be a bit stuck (contact your hosting company).

I've seen plus signs for people filtering mails from specific locations: ie. their real address is "[e-mail]", and they use "[e-mail]" or "[e-mail]" which relate to where they use their address. Gmail, for example, allows this. The "real" address is the part before the plus sign.

[edited by: encyclo at 3:24 pm (utc) on July 26, 2004]

[john_k]

Technically and in theory, there are very few restrictions on what can go into an email address. You can even put comments in an address! In practice, most email routing routines do not allow some characters that should be permitted.

As an aside, does the Google search of email format rfc result in a particularly odd error message for anyone else?

I don't know if Yogi Berra (sp?) actually said this, but it is often attributed to him: In theory, there isn't any difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.

[kapow]

Thanks everyone.

Great quote john_k :)