Extract ip addresses from Strings using regex

Question

In an application, I get strings containing IP Addresses but these string have no precise format. All we know is that these strings may contain an IP address.

here's an example of what the string can look like :

• "XPSPort"
• "IP_10.29.167.187"
• "10.29.166.193"

I would like to get a Java code that extracts the ip address of the string if there is one or that returns "" if the string doesn't contain an ip address.

I tried this code but it doesn't work :

String IPADDRESS_PATTERN = 
        "^([01]?\\d\\d?|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])\\." +
        "([01]?\\d\\d?|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])\\." +
        "([01]?\\d\\d?|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])\\." +
        "([01]?\\d\\d?|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])$";

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(IPADDRESS_PATTERN);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(ipString);
        if (matcher.find()) {
            return matcher.group();
        }
        else{
            return "0.0.0.0";
        }

I'm pretty sure using RegExp is the best way to achieve that but I'm not very good with these so can someone help me find the good RegExp?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Richard's link helped me find the answer. here's the working code :

String IPADDRESS_PATTERN = 
        "(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)";

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(IPADDRESS_PATTERN);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(ipString);
if (matcher.find()) {
    return matcher.group();
} else{
    return "0.0.0.0";
}

Answer 2

IPV4_PATTERN = "^(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\\d|[0-1]?\\d?\\d)(\\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\\d|[0-1]?\\d?\\d)){3}$"

Answer 3

Check this solution to validate both IPV4 & IPV6 addresses.

/**
 * This class provides a variety of basic utility methods that are not
 * dependent on any other classes within the org.jamwiki package structure.
 */
public class Utilities {
  private static Pattern VALID_IPV4_PATTERN = null;
  private static Pattern VALID_IPV6_PATTERN = null;
  private static final String ipv4Pattern = "(([01]?\\d\\d?|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])\\.){3}([01]?\\d\\d?|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])";
  private static final String ipv6Pattern = "([0-9a-f]{1,4}:){7}([0-9a-f]){1,4}";

  static {
    try {
      VALID_IPV4_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(ipv4Pattern, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
      VALID_IPV6_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(ipv6Pattern, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
    } catch (PatternSyntaxException e) {
      //logger.severe("Unable to compile pattern", e);
    }
  }

  /**
   * Determine if the given string is a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.  This method
   * uses pattern matching to see if the given string could be a valid IP address.
   *
   * @param ipAddress A string that is to be examined to verify whether or not
   *  it could be a valid IP address.
   * @return <code>true</code> if the string is a value that is a valid IP address,
   *  <code>false</code> otherwise.
   */
  public static boolean isIpAddress(String ipAddress) {

    Matcher m1 = Utilities.VALID_IPV4_PATTERN.matcher(ipAddress);
    if (m1.matches()) {
      return true;
    }
    Matcher m2 = Utilities.VALID_IPV6_PATTERN.matcher(ipAddress);
    return m2.matches();
  }
}

source: Determine if the given string is a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.