Skip to content

Network Address Functions and Operators

Network Address Functions and Operators

The IP network address types, cidr and inet, support the usual comparison operators shown in Comparison Operators as well as the specialized operators and functions shown in IP Address Operators and IP Address Functions.

Any cidr value can be cast to inet implicitly; therefore, the operators and functions shown below as operating on inet also work on cidr values. (Where there are separate functions for inet and cidr, it is because the behavior should be different for the two cases.) Also, it is permitted to cast an inet value to cidr. When this is done, any bits to the right of the netmask are silently zeroed to create a valid cidr value.

Table: IP Address Operators

Operator Description Example(s)
inet << inet boolean Is subnet strictly contained by subnet? This operator, and the next four, test for subnet inclusion. They consider only the network parts of the two addresses (ignoring any bits to the right of the netmasks) and determine whether one network is identical to or a subnet of the other. inet '192.168.1.5' << inet '192.168.1/24' t
inet '192.168.0.5' << inet '192.168.1/24' f
inet '192.168.1/24' << inet '192.168.1/24' f
inet <<= inet boolean Is subnet contained by or equal to subnet? inet '192.168.1/24' <<= inet '192.168.1/24' t
inet >> inet boolean Does subnet strictly contain subnet? inet '192.168.1/24' >> inet '192.168.1.5' t
inet >>= inet boolean Does subnet contain or equal subnet? inet '192.168.1/24' >>= inet '192.168.1/24' t
inet && inet boolean Does either subnet contain or equal the other? inet '192.168.1/24' && inet '192.168.1.80/28' t
inet '192.168.1/24' && inet '192.168.2.0/28' f
~ inet inet Computes bitwise NOT. ~ inet '192.168.1.6' 63.87.254.249
inet & inet inet Computes bitwise AND. inet '192.168.1.6' & inet '0.0.0.255' 0.0.0.6
inet | inet inet Computes bitwise OR. inet '192.168.1.6' | inet '0.0.0.255' 192.168.1.255
inet + bigint inet Adds an offset to an address. inet '192.168.1.6' + 25 192.168.1.31
bigint + inet inet Adds an offset to an address. 200 + inet '::ffff:fff0:1' ::ffff:255.240.0.201
inet - bigint inet Subtracts an offset from an address. inet '192.168.1.43' - 36 192.168.1.7
inet - inet bigint Computes the difference of two addresses. inet '192.168.1.43' - inet '192.168.1.19' 24
inet '::1' - inet '::ffff:1' -4294901760

Table: IP Address Functions

Function Description Example(s)
abbrev ( inet ) text Creates an abbreviated display format as text. (The result is the same as the inet output function produces; it is “abbreviated” only in comparison to the result of an explicit cast to text, which for historical reasons will never suppress the netmask part.) abbrev(inet '10.1.0.0/32') 10.1.0.0
abbrev ( cidr ) text Creates an abbreviated display format as text. (The abbreviation consists of dropping all-zero octets to the right of the netmask; more examples are in cidr Type Input Examples.) abbrev(cidr '10.1.0.0/16') 10.1/16
broadcast ( inet ) inet Computes the broadcast address for the address's network. broadcast(inet '192.168.1.5/24') 192.168.1.255/24
family ( inet ) integer Returns the address's family: 4 for IPv4, 6 for IPv6. family(inet '::1') 6
host ( inet ) text Returns the IP address as text, ignoring the netmask. host(inet '192.168.1.0/24') 192.168.1.0
hostmask ( inet ) inet Computes the host mask for the address's network. hostmask(inet '192.168.23.20/30') 0.0.0.3
inet_merge ( inet, inet ) cidr Computes the smallest network that includes both of the given networks. inet_merge(inet '192.168.1.5/24', inet '192.168.2.5/24') 192.168.0.0/22
inet_same_family ( inet, inet ) boolean Tests whether the addresses belong to the same IP family. inet_same_family(inet '192.168.1.5/24', inet '::1') f
masklen ( inet ) integer Returns the netmask length in bits. masklen(inet '192.168.1.5/24') 24
netmask ( inet ) inet Computes the network mask for the address's network. netmask(inet '192.168.1.5/24') 255.255.255.0
network ( inet ) cidr Returns the network part of the address, zeroing out whatever is to the right of the netmask. (This is equivalent to casting the value to cidr.) network(inet '192.168.1.5/24') 192.168.1.0/24
set_masklen ( inet, integer ) inet Sets the netmask length for an inet value. The address part does not change. set_masklen(inet '192.168.1.5/24', 16) 192.168.1.5/16
set_masklen ( cidr, integer ) cidr Sets the netmask length for a cidr value. Address bits to the right of the new netmask are set to zero. set_masklen(cidr '192.168.1.0/24', 16) 192.168.0.0/16
text ( inet ) text Returns the unabbreviated IP address and netmask length as text. (This has the same result as an explicit cast to text.) text(inet '192.168.1.5') 192.168.1.5/32

Tip

The abbrev, host, and text functions are primarily intended to offer alternative display formats for IP addresses.

The MAC address types, macaddr and macaddr8, support the usual comparison operators shown in Comparison Operators as well as the specialized functions shown in MAC Address Functions. In addition, they support the bitwise logical operators ~, & and | (NOT, AND and OR), just as shown above for IP addresses.

Table: MAC Address Functions

Function Description Example(s)
trunc ( macaddr ) macaddr Sets the last 3 bytes of the address to zero. The remaining prefix can be associated with a particular manufacturer (using data not included in PostgreSQL). trunc(macaddr '12:34:56:78:90:ab') 12:34:56:00:00:00
trunc ( macaddr8 ) macaddr8 Sets the last 5 bytes of the address to zero. The remaining prefix can be associated with a particular manufacturer (using data not included in PostgreSQL). trunc(macaddr8 '12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef') 12:34:56:00:00:00:00:00
macaddr8_set7bit ( macaddr8 ) macaddr8 Sets the 7th bit of the address to one, creating what is known as modified EUI-64, for inclusion in an IPv6 address. macaddr8_set7bit(macaddr8 '00:34:56:ab:cd:ef') 02:34:56:ff:fe:ab:cd:ef