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How to: Map a Display Name to an E-mail Address

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This topic shows a code sample in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that takes a display name and tries to map it to an e-mail address known to the messaging system in the current session.

For each Outlook session, the transport provider defines a set of address book containers that the messaging system can deliver messages to. Each address book container corresponds to an address list in Outlook. If a display name is defined in the set of address book containers, the display name can be resolved in the current session and there exists an entry in an address list that maps to this display name. Note that entries in an address list can be of various types, including an Exchange user and Exchange distribution list.

In this code sample, the function ResolveDisplayNameToSMTP uses the display name "Dan Wilson" as an example. It first tries to verify that the display name is defined in an address list by creating a Recipient object based on this display name and then calling Recipient.Resolve. If the name is resolved, then ResolveDisplayNameToSMTP uses the AddressEntry object that is mapped to the Recipient object to further obtain the type and, if possible, the e-mail address:

  • If the type of the AddressEntry object is an Exchange user, ResolveDisplayNameToSMTP calls AddressEntry.GetExchangeUser to obtain the corresponding ExchangeUser object. ExchangeUser.PrimarySmtpAddress provides the e-mail address that maps to the display name.

  • If the AddressEntry object is an Exchange distribution list, ResolveDisplayNameToSMTP calls AddressEntry.GetExchangeDistributionList to obtain an ExchangeDistributionList object. ExchangeDistributionList.PrimarySmtpAddress provides the e-mail address that maps to the display name.

    Sub ResolveDisplayNameToSMTP() Dim oRecip As Outlook.Recipient Dim oEU As Outlook.ExchangeUser Dim oEDL As Outlook.ExchangeDistributionList

    Set oRecip = Application.Session.CreateRecipient("Dan Wilson") oRecip.Resolve If oRecip.Resolved Then Select Case oRecip.AddressEntry.AddressEntryUserType Case OlAddressEntryUserType.olExchangeUserAddressEntry Set oEU = oRecip.AddressEntry.GetExchangeUser If Not (oEU Is Nothing) Then Debug.Print oEU.PrimarySmtpAddress End If Case OlAddressEntryUserType.olExchangeDistributionListAddressEntry Set oEDL = oRecip.AddressEntry.GetExchangeDistributionList If Not (oEDL Is Nothing) Then Debug.Print oEDL.PrimarySmtpAddress End If End Select End If End Sub