php - mysql - search on partial IP address

[kathys39]

I have a database that stores all the ip addresses of the machines on my network. One table consists of the ip address itself, and the second field is an ip_number (converted via the ip2long function in php). I could not find a way to search on the normal, dotted quad IP address notation, hence the ip_number field. I can easily search on this field when using the entire IP address, but would like to allow the user to enter partial IP addresses. Any ideas on how I can do this when I need to convert the IP address to an IP number to actually do the search?

[NogDog]

You could build a range of numbers by substituting all zeros and then all 255's for the missing parts. (E.g.: if the user enters "123.101", then you would pad that out into two addresses: 123.101.0.0 and 123.101.255.255, apply ip2long() to each, and do a "WHERE ip_number BETWEEN $lownumber AND $highnumber" in your SQL.