Best way to store IP Address in database?

[rockinaway]

I've been doing some research and I was wondering what the best way is to store IP addresses in a MySQL database, and what would be the field type and length?

 

I've seen that you can use the inet_aton() function but supposedly this doesn't support IPv4. So is there a workaround using these functions?

 

Alternatively, if I was to just store the IP address as it is, what type of field and length would I be looking at? I've read somewhere that 45 is the max?

 

 

[Pikachu2000]

INET_ATON() supports IP V4. It doesn't support IP v6. IP v6 is a hexadecimal number.

[rockinaway]

Oh, well which method would you suggest to store IP addresses?

[xyph]

You could store it in an unsigned int column (should be big enough) and use

 

sprintf("%u", ip2long($ip));

 

This will save a bunch of space over a string.

[rockinaway]

Please can you explain the reasoning for the space thing?

[xyph]

Storing an int takes up 4 bytes. Storing a string takes 1 byte per character. If the string is over 4 characters, it will take up more space than an int.

[rockinaway]

So what does the function you have given, do exactly?

[xyph]

Are you too short to grab that manual from the top of the shelf?

 

http://ca.php.net/manual/en/function.ip2long.php

[rockinaway]

No, i've just spent hours reading over different stuff and my brain is mangled..

 

Now, does that mean it ONLY handles IPv4?

[Pandemikk]

"ip2long — Converts a string containing an (IPv4) Internet Protocol dotted address into a proper address"

 

'Tis would seem so.

[rockinaway]

Yes, so which method is best to support BOTH IPv4 and IPv6? Just storing them as the characters that they are?