System.Net.IPAddress Class

Provides an IP address.

Namespace:

Assembly:

System (in System.dll)

Syntax

public class IPAddress

Remarks

The IPAddress class represents an IP address. It can represent either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address.

An IP address is a logical address that identifies a network interface on a network. Computers use IP addresses to communicate with each other.

Use the methods of the IPAddress class to create and manipulate IP addresses. For example, you can use the static members IPAddress.Parse to convert a string representation of an IP address to an IPAddress object, or IPAddress.ToString to convert an IPAddress object to its string representation.

Note

The IPAddress class can represent both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. To specify the address family (IPv4 or IPv6), use the AddressFamily enumeration.

Constructor Summary

Constructor	Description
IPAddress(byte[])	Initializes a new instance of the `IPAddress` class with the specified byte array.
IPAddress(long)	Initializes a new instance of the `IPAddress` class using the specified unsigned integer representation of the host.

Fields

The IPAddress class does not expose any public fields.

Properties Summary

Property	Description
AddressBytes	Gets the byte array representation of the IP address.
AddressFamily	Gets the `AddressFamily` of the IP address.
IsCertificateHashString	Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a certificate hash string.
IsIPv4MappedToIPv6	Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.
IsLoopback	Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a loopback address.
IsMulticast	Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a multicast address.
IsRecognized	Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a recognized IP address.
IsUnspecified	Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is an unspecified address.

Methods Summary

Method	Description
Equals(object)	Determines whether the specified object is equal to the current object.
GetHashCode()	Serves as the default hash function.
GetType()	Gets the type of the current instance.
Parse(string)	Converts an IPv4 or IPv6 address from its string representation to an `IPAddress` instance.
ToString()	Returns a string representation of the IP address.
TryParse(string, out IPAddress)	Converts the string representation of an IP address to its `IPAddress` equivalent. A return value indicates whether the conversion succeeded.
TryParse(string, out IPAddress, out AddressFamily)	Converts the string representation of an IP address to its `IPAddress` equivalent and determines the address family. A return value indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

Static Members

Fields

The IPAddress class does not expose any public static fields.

Properties

Property	Description
IPv4Any	Represents the wildcard IP address (0.0.0.0).
IPv4Broadcast	Represents the broadcast IP address (255.255.255.255).
IPv4Loopback	Represents the loopback IP address (127.0.0.1).
IPv6Any	Represents the wildcard IPv6 address (::).
IPv6Loopback	Represents the loopback IPv6 address (::1).
IPv6None	Represents the unspecified IPv6 address (::).

Methods

See Parse(string) and TryParse(string, out IPAddress) methods for converting string representations to IPAddress objects.

Constructor

public IPAddress(byte[] address)

Initializes a new instance of the IPAddress class with the specified byte array.

Parameters:

address: An array of bytes that represents the IP address.

Constructor

public IPAddress(long newAddress)

Initializes a new instance of the IPAddress class using the specified unsigned integer representation of the host.

Parameters:

newAddress: A 64-bit signed integer that contains the host IP address.

Property

public byte[] AddressBytes { get; }

Gets the byte array representation of the IP address.

Property

public AddressFamily AddressFamily { get; }

Gets the AddressFamily of the IP address.

Property

public bool IsCertificateHashString { get; }

Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a certificate hash string.

Property

public bool IsIPv4MappedToIPv6 { get; }

Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address.

Property

public bool IsLoopback { get; }

Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a loopback address.

Property

public bool IsMulticast { get; }

Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a multicast address.

Property

public bool IsRecognized { get; }

Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is a recognized IP address.

Property

public bool IsUnspecified { get; }

Gets a value that indicates whether the IP address is an unspecified address.

Method

public override bool Equals(object obj)

Serves as the default hash function.

Method

public override int GetHashCode()

Serves as the default hash function.

Method

public Type GetType()

Gets the type of the current instance.

Method

public static IPAddress Parse(string ipString)

Converts an IPv4 or IPv6 address from its string representation to an IPAddress instance.

Parameters:

ipString: The string to convert.

Returns: An IPAddress instance.

Throws:

ArgumentNullException: ipString is null.
FormatException: ipString is not a valid IP address.

Method

public override string ToString()

Returns a string representation of the IP address.

Returns: A string representation of the IP address.

Method

public static bool TryParse(string ipString, out IPAddress address)

Converts the string representation of an IP address to its IPAddress equivalent. A return value indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

Parameters:

ipString: The string to convert.
address: When this method returns, contains an IPAddress instance equivalent to the ipString, if the conversion succeeded, or null if the conversion failed.

Returns: true if ipString was converted successfully; otherwise, false.

Method

public static bool TryParse(string ipString, out IPAddress address, out AddressFamily family)

Converts the string representation of an IP address to its IPAddress equivalent and determines the address family. A return value indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

Parameters:

ipString: The string to convert.
address: When this method returns, contains an IPAddress instance equivalent to the ipString, if the conversion succeeded, or null if the conversion failed.
family: When this method returns, contains the AddressFamily of the parsed IP address if the conversion succeeded, or AddressFamily.Unspecified if the conversion failed.

Returns: true if ipString was converted successfully; otherwise, false.

Keywords:

System.Net IPAddress network address IPv4 IPv6 socket

Examples

Creating an IPv4 Address:

using System;
using System.Net;

public class IPv4Example
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Parse an IPv4 address string
        IPAddress ipv4Address = IPAddress.Parse("192.168.1.1");
        Console.WriteLine($"Parsed IPv4 Address: {ipv4Address.ToString()}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Address Family: {ipv4Address.AddressFamily}");

        // Create an IPv4 address from bytes
        byte[] ipv4Bytes = { 10, 0, 0, 5 };
        IPAddress ipv4AddressFromBytes = new IPAddress(ipv4Bytes);
        Console.WriteLine($"IPv4 Address from bytes: {ipv4AddressFromBytes.ToString()}");

        // Get loopback address
        Console.WriteLine($"IPv4 Loopback: {IPAddress.IPv4Loopback}");
    }
}

Creating an IPv6 Address:

using System;
using System.Net;

public class IPv6Example
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Parse an IPv6 address string
        IPAddress ipv6Address = IPAddress.Parse("2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334");
        Console.WriteLine($"Parsed IPv6 Address: {ipv6Address.ToString()}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Address Family: {ipv6Address.AddressFamily}");

        // Create an IPv6 address from bytes
        byte[] ipv6Bytes = { 0x20, 0x01, 0x0d, 0xb8, 0x85, 0xa3, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x8a, 0x2e, 0x03, 0x70, 0x73, 0x34 };
        IPAddress ipv6AddressFromBytes = new IPAddress(ipv6Bytes);
        Console.WriteLine($"IPv6 Address from bytes: {ipv6AddressFromBytes.ToString()}");

        // Get loopback address
        Console.WriteLine($"IPv6 Loopback: {IPAddress.IPv6Loopback}");
    }
}

Using TryParse for safe conversion:

using System;
using System.Net;

public class TryParseExample
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string ipString = "192.168.1.100";
        IPAddress parsedAddress;
        AddressFamily parsedFamily;

        if (IPAddress.TryParse(ipString, out parsedAddress))
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Successfully parsed: {parsedAddress}");
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Failed to parse: {ipString}");
        }

        if (IPAddress.TryParse(ipString, out parsedAddress, out parsedFamily))
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Successfully parsed with family: {parsedAddress} ({parsedFamily})");
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Failed to parse with family: {ipString}");
        }

        string invalidIpString = "not an ip address";
        if (!IPAddress.TryParse(invalidIpString, out parsedAddress))
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Correctly failed to parse invalid string: {invalidIpString}");
        }
    }
}

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