How to Efficiently Store IPv6 Addresses in MySQL?

How to Store IPv6 Addresses in MySQL

Question:

MySQL currently lacks a native function for storing IPv6 addresses. What is the recommended data type and approach for storing IPv6 addresses in MySQL?

Answer:

Data Type: BINARY(16)

This data type is efficient for storing binary data, making it suitable for IPv6 addresses, which are 128-bit binary values.

Functions:

MySQL 5.6.3 :

• INET6_ATON(expr): Converts a textual IPv6 address to a binary representation.
• INET6_NTOA(expr): Converts a binary IPv6 address to a textual representation.

For Older MySQL/MariaDB Versions:

• You can create your own functions to convert between textual and binary representations of IPv6 addresses. Refer to the "EXTENDING MYSQL 5 WITH IPV6 FUNCTIONS" article for a custom implementation.

Tips:

• If you are only working with IPv6 addresses, you can use BINARY(16) to save one byte of storage compared to VARBINARY(16). However, VARBINARY(16) is more versatile and compatible with both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses.
• Consider using a third-party library or module in your application to handle IP address manipulation.

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