# Address

Represents a bitcoin Address. Addresses became the most popular way to make
bitcoin transactions. See [the official Bitcoin
Wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address) for more information.


## Instantiate an Address

To be able to receive bitcoin an address is needed, here is how to create an
address from a new private key. Please see the [`PrivateKey`](PrivateKey.md) docs
for more information about exporting and saving a key.

```javascript

var PrivateKey = require('bitcore/lib/privatekey');
var privateKey = new PrivateKey();
var address = privateKey.toAddress();

```

You can also instantiate an address from a String or PublicKey.

```javascript

var Address = require('bitcore/lib/address');
var PublicKey = require('bitcore/lib/publickey');
var Networks = require('bitcore/lib/networks');

// from a string
var address = Address.fromString('mwkXG8NnB2snbqWTcpNiK6qqGHm1LebHDc');

// a default network address from a public key
var publicKey = PublicKey(privateKey);
var address = Address.fromPublicKey(publicKey);

// a testnet address from a public key
var publicKey = PublicKey(privateKey);
var address = Address.fromPublicKey(publicKey, Networks.testnet);

```

## Validating an Address

The main use that we expect you'll have for the `Address` class in bitcore is
validating that an address is a valid one, what type of address it is (you may
be interested on knowning if the address is a simple "pay to public key hash"
address or a "pay to script hash" address) and what network does the address
belong to.

The code to do these validations looks like this:

```javascript

// validate an address
if (Address.isValid(input){
  ...
}

// validate that an input field is a valid testnet address
if (Address.isValid(input, Networks.testnet){
  ...
}

// validate that an input field is a valid livenet pubkeyhash
if (Address.isValid(input, Networks.livenet, Address.Pay2PubKeyHash){
  ...
}

// get the specific validation error that can occurred
var error = Address.getValidationError(input, Networks.testnet);
  if (error) {
    // handle the error
  }
}

```