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The article is wrong: The number of email addresses is NOT INFINITE. The 'user' part of an email address (before the @) has a maximum length of 64 characters.
by sandov 9y ago
The article is wrong: The number of email addresses is NOT INFINITE.
The 'user' part of an email address (before the @) has a maximum length of 64 characters. If n is the number of non-dot characters in the user part, then only (64 - n) dots can be added to the address for it to still be valid.
The valid email addresses for that user are a subset of all 64 character combinations possible with dots, alphanumeric chars, _, and a finite set of characters that I don't remember right now. That is a finite set, therefore the subset is also finite.
- saagarjha 9y agoFor Gmail, you can add a plus to the left side of your email address and then append an arbitrary string. For example, email@gmail.com and email+foo@gmail.com are the same address.
- tejasmanohar 9y agoAnd, it's still finite, right? Just a large, finite number :P
- saagarjha 9y agoNo? You can put whatever string you want there, of which there are an infinite number…
- tialaramex 9y agoThe poster already explained that no, you can only write up to 64 characters which is not "infinite"
- saagarjha 9y agoAh, I didn't catch that.