converting IP address to IP number

Ip number is a numerical representation of the ip address we are all used to .
For instance 1.2.3.4 = 1690960 ;

It is good for some reasons, like conveting the Ip address to geographical position, or rule manupulation like firewalls and network devices.

How do you do that ?

Here is a little method that shows how to do that in c #

public static uint convertIP(string sIp)

{

string[] sOctecs;

char[] cSeperator = { '.' };

int[] iOctet = new int[4];

uint iReturnIPNumber = 0;

if (sIp != "")

{

bool bConvertOK;

sOctecs = sIp.Split(cSeperator, 4);//split the string to the octets

for (int i = 0; i <>

{

bConvertOK = int.TryParse(sOctecs[i], out iOctet[i]);

if (!bConvertOK)

{

return 0;

}

}//end for

// iOctecs contain integers , lets do the magic

//some math

iReturnIPNumber = (uint)iOctet[3];

iReturnIPNumber = iReturnIPNumber + ((uint)iOctet[2] * (uint)256);

iReturnIPNumber = iReturnIPNumber + ((uint)iOctet[1] * (uint)256 * (uint)256);

iReturnIPNumber = iReturnIPNumber + ((uint)iOctet[0] * (uint)256 * (uint)256 * (uint)256);

}

return iReturnIPNumber;

}

If you need it in the database , then mySQL has a built in functions of converting

mysql> SELECT INET_ATON('192.168.10.50');

+----------------------------+

| INET_ATON('192.168.10.50') |

+----------------------------+

| 3232238130 |

+----------------------------+

1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT INET_NTOA(839559360);

+----------------------+

| INET_NTOA(839559360) |

+----------------------+

| 50.10.168.192 |

+----------------------+

1 row in set (0.00 sec)