# How to find IP address **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum\ **Tags:** Adabas-Natural, Natural, Natural-Code-Samples\ **Created:** [May 6, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330 "2016-05-06T05:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Smith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/john_smith/32/39012_2.png) [@John\_Smith](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/John_Smith)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/1 "2016-05-06T05:06:02Z")
Hi, I would like to know if anyone has any code that can find an IP address in a string. We can have different ways to represent IP, and different way to not be an IP address. for example: /\* aaaah cvcv dfdfsdf df d 100.20.100.255 /\* fdf df 10.20.1.1 /\* df 05.05.2016 ← this is not IP /\* dfdf 05.05.2016 dfdf dsfs 200.1.20.3.5 /\* ABC.DEF.GHI.JKL dfdfsfsd /\* dfsdf dsfsd sdfs sdffhhgh hhg 14.200.33.200 /\* jfsdj jdkjfk 20.20…djdf sj /\* dfj sjdflk 10.20.2.200 dkflksdlf asl sdjs and any other ways…different location in the string…or false cognates… tks. ---
**Author:** ![Tong\_Wang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/tong_wang/32/410_2.png) [@Tong\_Wang](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Tong_Wang)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/2 "2016-05-06T16:55:30Z")
try regular expression, it should work for your case ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Robinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/steve_robinson/32/107_2.png) [@Steve\_Robinson](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Steve_Robinson)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/3 "2016-05-06T19:01:14Z")
You could probably use EXAMINE … FOR PATTERN … GIVING LOCATION for a starter, As a pattern (assuming IPv4) you could use _._._._ This would not end matters however. You would have to isolate the leading and ending digits. Not to mention checking for numerics, etc. Hopefully someone in the community has been faced with this problem and written code to cover all contingencies steve ---
**Author:** ![John\_Smith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/john_smith/32/39012_2.png) [@John\_Smith](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/John_Smith)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/4 "2016-05-07T02:17:04Z")
Hi Steve, thank you, considering that I understood your idea, it didn’t work. when I use pattern _._._._ , the dois between the stars mean that the char will be ignore, and \* (star) means any char. tks. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Robinson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/steve_robinson/32/107_2.png) [@Steve\_Robinson](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Steve_Robinson)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 12:19pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/5 "2016-05-07T12:19:56Z")
Sorry, forgot about the period being a “skip one” character. Try the following DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #A (A30) INIT \<‘123.456.789.12’\> 1 #NUM (N2) 1 #REP (A1) INIT \<‘&’\> END-DEFINE \* EXAMINE #A FOR “.” REPLACE WITH #REP EXAMINE #A FOR PATTERN ‘_&_&_&_’ GIVING NUMBER #NUM WRITE ‘=’ #NUM END For #REP use anything that is not valid in the alpha string #A; I used the ampersand. ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_Beckwith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/todd_beckwith/32/388_2.png) [@Todd\_Beckwith](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Todd_Beckwith)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/6 "2016-05-09T17:06:17Z")
Adding to Steve’s idea, the following is a start. It assumes that the IP would be bordered by a space. If it could be surrounded by parenthesis or other characters, it would need to be adapted. Additional validation may be required (e.g. checking that the numbers are in the proper range, skip reserved IPs, etc.). I’m not sure what your end goal is. I also don’t know if this is the most efficient way but may give some ideas. ```auto DEFINE DATA LOCAL 1 #A (A30) INIT <'abc 199.198.197.196 abc'> 1 #WORDS (A/*) DYNAMIC 1 #PARTS (A/4) DYNAMIC 1 #C1 (I2) 1 #C2 (I2) 1 #C3 (I2) END-DEFINE EXAMINE #A '.' REPLACE ':' EXAMINE #A FULL ' ' NUMBER #C1 ADD 1 TO #C1 RESIZE ARRAY #WORDS TO (1:#C1) SEPARATE #A INTO #WORDS (*) WITH DELIMITER ' ' FOR #C2 = 1 TO #C1 EXAMINE #WORDS (#C2) PATTERN '*:*:*:*' POSITION #C3 IF #C3 = 0 ESCAPE TOP END-IF WRITE 'TEST:' #WORDS (#C2) (AL=78) SEPARATE #WORDS (#C2) INTO #PARTS (*) WITH DELIMITER ':' IF #PARTS (1) IS (N3) AND #PARTS (2) IS (N3) AND #PARTS (3) IS (N3) AND #PARTS (4) IS (N3) IGNORE ELSE ESCAPE TOP END-IF WRITE 'PASS:' #WORDS (#C2) (AL=78) END-FOR END ``` ---
**Author:** ![John\_Smith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/john_smith/32/39012_2.png) [@John\_Smith](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/John_Smith)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/7 "2016-05-10T02:13:21Z")
Hi Todd, Thank you very much, It worked, and sure, if I need to adapt it, this is an excellent start. Thank you again. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/8 "2016-05-10T16:29:02Z")
And now for IPv6 :lol: ---
**Author:** ![David\_Stephan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@David\_Stephan](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/David_Stephan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/9 "2016-11-04T11:51:42Z")
well, it will also detect 1111.2222.3333.4444 as an ip address. Better do this: $answer = StringRegExp($MyString1,‘((?:\d{1,3}.){3}\d{1,3})’,3) ---
**Author:** ![Todd\_Beckwith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/user_avatar/techcommunity.softwareag.com/todd_beckwith/32/388_2.png) [@Todd\_Beckwith](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Todd_Beckwith)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 12:38pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/10 "2016-11-04T12:38:03Z")
> [@David Stephan](#): > > well, it will also detect 1111.2222.3333.4444 as an ip address. > > Better do this: > > $answer = StringRegExp($MyString1,‘((?:\d{1,3}.){3}\d{1,3})’,3) The sample I posted would not detect the value provided and, while regex is great, this is a Natural Code Samples forum and, to the best of my knowledge, Natural does not have native regex support (at least on Unix, Mainframe, or OpenVMS). If Natural does in fact support regex, please share as I would love to have it in my Natural toolbox. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Dayse\_Vianna1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Dayse\_Vianna1](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/Dayse_Vianna1)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/11 "2017-04-19T22:12:05Z")
How can I get the IP NUMBER under NATURAL AJAX (NATURAL ONE) ? The code to obtain is not so dificult. But what to do with the code ? Where to “compile” within NATURAL AJAX environment ? Att. Dayse Vianna ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/techcommunity/original/3X/c/d/cd19967bb605d28a72d77eb83a1cae22f3df2eb8.svg) [@system](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://techcommunity.softwareag.com/t/how-to-find-ip-address/188330/12 "2021-04-02T15:35:59Z")