Re^2: variables as classes

[nmerriweather]

thanks a ton! that did it

package Email;
use overload '""'=> \&ADDRESS , fallback=> 1;

my     $RE_EMAIL= qr/^[\w\-\+\._]+\@[a-zA-Z0-9][-a-zA-Z0-9\.]*\.[a-zA-
+Z]+$/ ;

sub new {
    my  $proto= $_[0];
    my  $class= ref($proto) || $proto;
    my  $self= bless( {} ,  $class );
    $self->{ADDRESS}= undef;
    $self->ADDRESS( $_[1] );
    return $self;
}

sub ADDRESS {
    my $self= shift;
    if ( @_ ) { 
        my     $email= shift;
        $email=~ $RE_EMAIL or die "Not a valid email address";
        $self->{ADDRESS}= $email;
    }
    return $self->{ADDRESS};
}

sub _as_str {
    my  ( $self )= @_;
    return $self->ADDRESS;
    
}