Get IP address with URL string? (Java)

Question

In my program a user enters a url string, say

http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~hawkeng//fall01/graphics/potato.gif

how would I get the IP address of this url? I tried using

InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(urlStr); 

but the result always comes back null. What is the proper way to get the IP address?

Answer 1

Try this:

InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(new URL(urlString).getHost()); 

To get the raw IP:

String ip = address.getHostAddress();