java.net
Class Inet6Address

java.lang.Object
  java.net.InetAddress
      java.net.Inet6Address

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable

public final class Inet6Address

extends InetAddress

This class represents an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address. Defined by RFC 2373: IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture.

Textual representation of IP addresses

Textual representation of IPv6 address used as input to methods takes one of the following forms:

1. The preferred form is x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x, where the 'x's are the hexadecimal values of the eight 16-bit pieces of the address. This is the full form. For example,

   1080:0:0:0:8:800:200C:417A

   Note that it is not necessary to write the leading zeros in an individual field. However, there must be at least one numeral in every field, except as described below.

2. Due to some methods of allocating certain styles of IPv6 addresses, it will be common for addresses to contain long strings of zero bits. In order to make writing addresses containing zero bits easier, a special syntax is available to compress the zeros. The use of "::" indicates multiple groups of 16-bits of zeros. The "::" can only appear once in an address. The "::" can also be used to compress the leading and/or trailing zeros in an address. For example,

   1080::8:800:200C:417A

3. An alternative form that is sometimes more convenient when dealing with a mixed environment of IPv4 and IPv6 nodes is x:x:x:x:x:x:d.d.d.d, where the 'x's are the hexadecimal values of the six high-order 16-bit pieces of the address, and the 'd's are the decimal values of the four low-order 8-bit pieces of the standard IPv4 representation address, for example,

   ::FFFF:129.144.52.38
   ::129.144.52.38

   where "::FFFF:d.d.d.d" and "::d.d.d.d" are, respectively, the general forms of an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address and an IPv4-compatible IPv6 address. Note that the IPv4 portion must be in the "d.d.d.d" form. The following forms are invalid:

   ::FFFF:d.d.d
   ::FFFF:d.d
   ::d.d.d
   ::d.d

   The following form:

   ::FFFF:d

   is valid, however it is an unconventional representation of the IPv4-compatible IPv6 address,

   ::255.255.0.d

   while "::d" corresponds to the general IPv6 address "0:0:0:0:0:0:0:d".

For methods that return a textual representation as output value, the full form is used. Inet6Address will return the full form because it is unambiguous when used in combination with other textual data.

Special IPv6 address

IPv4-mapped address

Of the form::ffff:w.x.y.z, this IPv6 address is used to represent an IPv4 address. It allows the native program to use the same address data structure and also the same socket when communicating with both IPv4 and IPv6 nodes. In InetAddress and Inet6Address, it is used for internal representation; it has no functional role. Java will never return an IPv4-mapped address. These classes can take an IPv4-mapped address as input, both in byte array and text representation. However, it will be converted into an IPv4 address.

See Also:

Serialized Form

Method Summary

boolean	equals(Object obj) Compares this object against the specified object.
byte[]	getAddress() Returns the raw IP address of this InetAddress object.
String	getHostAddress() Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.
int	hashCode() Returns a hashcode for this IP address.
boolean	isAnyLocalAddress() Utility routine to check if the InetAddress in a wildcard address.
boolean	isIPv4CompatibleAddress() Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IPv4 compatible IPv6 address.
boolean	isLinkLocalAddress() Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an link local address.
boolean	isLoopbackAddress() Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a loopback address.
boolean	isMCGlobal() Utility routine to check if the multicast address has global scope.
boolean	isMCLinkLocal() Utility routine to check if the multicast address has link scope.
boolean	isMCNodeLocal() Utility routine to check if the multicast address has node scope.
boolean	isMCOrgLocal() Utility routine to check if the multicast address has organization scope.
boolean	isMCSiteLocal() Utility routine to check if the multicast address has site scope.
boolean	isMulticastAddress() Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address.
boolean	isSiteLocalAddress() Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a site local address.

Methods inherited from class java.net.InetAddress

getAllByName, getByAddress, getByAddress, getByName, getCanonicalHostName, getHostName, getLocalHost, toString

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Method Detail

isMulticastAddress

public boolean isMulticastAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address. 11111111 at the start of the address identifies the address as being a multicast address.

Overrides:

isMulticastAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is an IP multicast address

Since:

JDK1.1

isAnyLocalAddress

public boolean isAnyLocalAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress in a wildcard address.

Overrides:

isAnyLocalAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the Inetaddress is a wildcard address.

Since:

1.4

isLoopbackAddress

public boolean isLoopbackAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a loopback address.

Overrides:

isLoopbackAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a loopback address; or false otherwise.

Since:

1.4

isLinkLocalAddress

public boolean isLinkLocalAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an link local address.

Overrides:

isLinkLocalAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a link local address; or false if address is not a link local unicast address.

Since:

1.4

isSiteLocalAddress

public boolean isSiteLocalAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is a site local address.

Overrides:

isSiteLocalAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is a site local address; or false if address is not a site local unicast address.

Since:

1.4

isMCGlobal

public boolean isMCGlobal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has global scope.

Overrides:

isMCGlobal in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of global scope, false if it is not of global scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCNodeLocal

public boolean isMCNodeLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has node scope.

Overrides:

isMCNodeLocal in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of node-local scope, false if it is not of node-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCLinkLocal

public boolean isMCLinkLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has link scope.

Overrides:

isMCLinkLocal in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of link-local scope, false if it is not of link-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCSiteLocal

public boolean isMCSiteLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has site scope.

Overrides:

isMCSiteLocal in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of site-local scope, false if it is not of site-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

isMCOrgLocal

public boolean isMCOrgLocal()

Utility routine to check if the multicast address has organization scope.

Overrides:

isMCOrgLocal in class InetAddress

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the address has is a multicast address of organization-local scope, false if it is not of organization-local scope or it is not a multicast address

Since:

1.4

getAddress

public byte[] getAddress()

Returns the raw IP address of this InetAddress object. The result is in network byte order: the highest order byte of the address is in getAddress()[0].

Overrides:

getAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

the raw IP address of this object.

getHostAddress

public String getHostAddress()

Returns the IP address string in textual presentation.

Overrides:

getHostAddress in class InetAddress

Returns:

the raw IP address in a string format.

hashCode

public int hashCode()

Returns a hashcode for this IP address.

Overrides:

hashCode in class InetAddress

Returns:

a hash code value for this IP address.

equals

public boolean equals(Object obj)

Compares this object against the specified object. The result is true if and only if the argument is not null and it represents the same IP address as this object.

Two instances of InetAddress represent the same IP address if the length of the byte arrays returned by getAddress is the same for both, and each of the array components is the same for the byte arrays.

Overrides:

equals in class InetAddress

Parameters:

obj - the object to compare against.

Returns:

true if the objects are the same; false otherwise.

See Also:

InetAddress.getAddress()

isIPv4CompatibleAddress

public boolean isIPv4CompatibleAddress()

Utility routine to check if the InetAddress is an IPv4 compatible IPv6 address.

Returns:

a boolean indicating if the InetAddress is an IPv4 compatible IPv6 address; or false if address is IPv4 address.

Since:

1.4