function is_ipaddress
Well this may not be new to you all, but still, when I was on the lookout how I could validate an ip address, all the regular expression techniques either failed on valid addresses or bloated too much. The out come was wrote a piece of code which may help others if this is correct, in its way. Not sure, since most of the addresses which I tested against the other validation methods, and failed or non valid ones which passed were blocked here.
Still I am not the ultimate, if you have better suggestions than the code given here, please do so.
function is_ipaddress($string){
$parts = explode('.', $string);
if(count($parts) !== 4) return false;
foreach($parts as $pos => $tval){
$val = intval($tval);
if($tval !== (string)$val)
return false;
if(($pos == 0 or $pos == 3) && ($val < 1 or $val > 254))
return false;
elseif($val < 1 or $val > 255)
return false;
}
return true;
}
It should be noted that any IP address though valid, having the last dotted decimal equal to 0 (zero) will be a network address and not a host address. Similarly that which has 255 would be a broadcast address and not a valid host address. I have not done any bench marks, but having an inclination towards accuracy than performance, this would be better than the regexp methods. Since validating an IP address is not possible through a straight simple expression.
Please don’t use this function. It assumes everything is a /24 (which is completely untrue in today’s internet) and also side-steps completely IPv6 addressing. 136.201.105.0 is a perfectly valid host address (part of 136.201.0.0/16 for example.)
This will probably work for most cases on someone’s home LAN, where wireless routers and the like support IPv4 only and give out /24′s by default – but anywhere else this will silently reject many perfectly valid IP addresses.
Best regards,
–>Gar
@Gareth Eason
Thanks Garth, will see if I can modify the function in any way such that it will address the whole spectrum, but I don’t think the IPv6 ‘d be a concern.