[SOLVED] IP Address String Routines in Delphi?

IP Address String Routines in Delphi?

I'm looking for a way in Delphi to validate and manipulate IP Addresses. Some of the things it should be able to do is...

Verify that a string is a valid IP address
Verify that a string is a valid subnet mask
Verify that an IP address is within a given Subnet
Some type (record or string or whatever) which is meant for storing an IP address
Basic conversion of an IP address types, such as String or Array[0..3] of Byte
Any other IP address routines that can make IP manipulation easier

The basic reason is that I want to see if these things are already out there before I go ahead and reinvent them.

Solution

I also once wrote a IPv4 and IPv6 conversion unit including a custom variant type for both types of IP addresses. This answer shows a few examples of its capabilities. Originally, it was designed to visualize values of various types in scale on some slider control ¹⁾. The requirements then were such that default existing libraries weren't sufficient, but I agree with the comments here that you probably will be helped with just Indy (10!) or alike.

Answering your list of questions with a few code snippets from that unit:

Q4: Storage type for IP types:

  const
    IPv4BitSize = SizeOf(Byte) * 4 * 8;
    IPv6BitSize = SizeOf(Word) * 8 * 8;

  type
    T4 = 0..3;
    T8 = 0..7;
    TIPv4ByteArray = array[T4] of Byte;
    TIPv6WordArray = array[T8] of Word;

    TIPv4 = packed record
      case Integer of
        0: (D, C, B, A: Byte);
        1: (Groups: TIPv4ByteArray);
        2: (Value: Cardinal);
    end;

    TIPv6 = packed record
      case Integer of
        0: (H, G, F, E, D, C, B, A: Word);
        1: (Groups: TIPv6WordArray);
    end;

Q5: Conversion of IP address strings to these record or array types:

  function StrToIPv4(const S: String): TIPv4;
  var
    SIP: String;
    Start: Integer;
    I: T4;
    Index: Integer;
    Count: Integer;
    SGroup: String;
    G: Integer;
  begin
    SIP := S + '.';
    Start := 1;
    for I := High(T4) downto Low(T4) do
    begin
      Index := PosEx('.', SIP, Start);
      if Index = 0 then
        IPv4ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv4Value, S);
      Count := Index - Start + 1;
      SGroup := Copy(SIP, Start, Count - 1);
      if TryStrToInt(SGroup, G) and (G >= Low(Word)) and (G <= High(Word)) then
          Result.Groups[I] := G
        else
          Result.Groups[I] := 0;
      Inc(Start, Count);
    end;
  end;

  function StrToIPv6(const S: String): TIPv6;
  { Valid examples for S:
    2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
    2001:db8:85a3:0:0:8a2e:370:7334
    2001:db8:85a3::8a2e:370:7334
    ::8a2e:370:7334
    2001:db8:85a3::
    ::1
    ::
    ::ffff:c000:280
    ::ffff:192.0.2.128 }
  var
    ZeroPos: Integer;
    DotPos: Integer;
    SIP: String;
    Start: Integer;
    Index: Integer;
    Count: Integer;
    SGroup: String;
    G: Integer;

    procedure NormalNotation;
    var
      I: T8;
    begin
      SIP := S + ':';
      Start := 1;
      for I := High(T8) downto Low(T8) do
      begin
        Index := PosEx(':', SIP, Start);
        if Index = 0 then
          IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
        Count := Index - Start + 1;
        SGroup := '$' + Copy(SIP, Start, Count - 1);
        if not TryStrToInt(SGroup, G) or (G > High(Word)) or (G < 0) then
          IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
        Result.Groups[I] := G;
        Inc(Start, Count);
      end;
    end;

    procedure CompressedNotation;
    var
      I: T8;
      A: array of Word;
    begin
      SIP := S + ':';
      Start := 1;
      I := High(T8);
      while Start < ZeroPos do
      begin
        Index := PosEx(':', SIP, Start);
        if Index = 0 then
          IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
        Count := Index - Start + 1;
        SGroup := '$' + Copy(SIP, Start, Count - 1);
        if not TryStrToInt(SGroup, G) or (G > High(Word)) or (G < 0) then
          IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
        Result.Groups[I] := G;
        Inc(Start, Count);
        Dec(I);
      end;
      FillChar(Result.H, (I + 1) * SizeOf(Word), 0);
      if ZeroPos < (Length(S) - 1) then
      begin
        SetLength(A, I + 1);
        Start := ZeroPos + 2;
        repeat
          Index := PosEx(':', SIP, Start);
          if Index > 0 then
          begin
            Count := Index - Start + 1;
            SGroup := '$' + Copy(SIP, Start, Count - 1);
            if not TryStrToInt(SGroup, G) or (G > High(Word)) or (G < 0) then
              IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
            A[I] := G;
            Inc(Start, Count);
            Dec(I);
          end;
        until Index = 0;
        Inc(I);
        Count := Length(A) - I;
        Move(A[I], Result.H, Count * SizeOf(Word));
      end;
    end;

    procedure DottedQuadNotation;
    var
      I: T4;
    begin
      if UpperCase(Copy(S, ZeroPos + 2, 4)) <> 'FFFF' then
        IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
      FillChar(Result.E, 5 * SizeOf(Word), 0);
      Result.F := $FFFF;
      SIP := S + '.';
      Start := ZeroPos + 7;
      for I := Low(T4) to High(T4) do
      begin
        Index := PosEx('.', SIP, Start);
        if Index = 0 then
          IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
        Count := Index - Start + 1;
        SGroup := Copy(SIP, Start, Count - 1);
        if not TryStrToInt(SGroup, G) or (G > High(Byte)) or (G < 0) then
          IPv6ErrorFmt(SInvalidIPv6Value, S);
        case I of
          0: Result.G := G shl 8;
          1: Inc(Result.G, G);
          2: Result.H := G shl 8;
          3: Inc(Result.H, G);
        end;
        Inc(Start, Count);
      end;
    end;

  begin
    ZeroPos := Pos('::', S);
    if ZeroPos = 0 then
      NormalNotation
    else
    begin
      DotPos := Pos('.', S);
      if DotPos = 0 then
        CompressedNotation
      else
        DottedQuadNotation;
    end;
  end;

For Q1 to Q3 you have to derive some routines yourself, but that should not be any problem.

^{1) For those interested, it's this slider control and this topic served as initiation of this unit.}