Any better way to check string for valid IPv4 and IPv6?

Question

I have the following task:

Identify if the string has a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address using just the default modules. I've found an interesting method using socket module here it is:

import socket

ip = '10.1.0.10'
try:
    # test for IPv4
    socket.inet_pton(socket.AF_INET, ip)
except socket.error:
    try:
        # test for IPv6 
        socket.inet_pton(socket.AF_INET6, ip)
    except socket.error:
        print(ip, " is not valid")

It seems ugly to have a try under a try in such case, is there a better way? Is there a different module that could accomplish the same in a better way considering the fact that I have to check about 100 IP's.

Answer 1

You can use the ipaddress module. Documentation can be found here: https://docs.python.org/3/library/ipaddress.html

Sample code:

>>> ipaddress.ip_address('192.168.0.1')
IPv4Address('192.168.0.1')
>>> ipaddress.ip_address('2001:db8::')
IPv6Address('2001:db8::')
>>> ipaddress.ip_address('323.4.7.8')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/ipaddress.py", line 54, in ip_address
    address)
ValueError: '323.4.7.8' does not appear to be an IPv4 or IPv6 address
>>> ipaddress.ip_address('ffff::4543:1f1f::134')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/ipaddress.py", line 54, in ip_address
    address)
ValueError: 'ffff::4543:1f1f::134' does not appear to be an IPv4 or IPv6 address