;; This file: http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/conf/emacs-init/match-data-format.el

(defun make-match-list (num string)
  (let ((match (match-string num string)))
    (when match (cons match (make-match-list (1+ num) string) ))))

(defun match-data-format (data match format-str)
  (save-match-data
    (string-match match data)
    (apply (function message) format-str (make-match-list 1 data)) ))

(when nil
    (match-data-format
     "From: Joe Hacker <get@this.data>"
     "\\(.*\\): *\\(.*[[:alnum:]]\\) *<\\(.*\\)>"
     "header is: %s\nname is: %s\ne-mail is: %s") ; eval me
  )