NAME

       Array::IntSpan::IP - a Module for arrays using IP addresses as indices

SYNOPSIS

         use Array::IntSpan::IP;

         my $foo = Array::IntSpan::IP->new(['123.45.67.0',   '123.45.67.255', 'Network 1'],
                                           ['123.45.68.0',   '123.45.68.127', 'Network 2'],
                                           ['123.45.68.128', '123.45.68.255', 'Network 3']);

         print "The address 123.45.68.37 is on network ".$foo->lookup("\173\105\150\45").".\n";
         unless (defined($foo->lookup(((123*256+45)*256+65)*256+67))) {
           print "The address 123.45.65.67 is not on a known network.\n";
         }

         print "The address 123.45.68.177 is on network ".$foo->lookup("123.45.68.177").".\n";

         $foo->set_range('123.45.68.128', '123.45.68.255', 'Network 4');
         print "The address 123.45.68.177 is now on network ".$foo->lookup("123.45.68.177").".\n";

DESCRIPTION

       "Array::IntSpan::IP" brings the advantages of "Array::IntSpan" to IP address indices.  Anywhere you use
       an index in "Array::IntSpan", you can use an IP address in one of three forms in "Array::IntSpan::IP".
       The three accepted forms are:

       Dotted decimal
           This is the standard human-readable format for IP addresses.  The conversion checks that the octets
           are in the range 0-255.  Example: '123.45.67.89'.

       Network string
           A four character string representing the octets in network order. Example: "\173\105\150\131".

       Integer
           A integer value representing the IP address. Example: "((123*256+45)*256+67)*256+89" or 2066563929.

       Note that the algorithm has no way of distinguishing between the integer values 1000 through 9999 and the
       network string format.  It will presume network string format in these instances.  For instance, the
       integer 1234 (representing the address '0.0.4.210') will be interpreted as "\61\62\63\64", or the IP
       address '49.50.51.52'.  This is unavoidable since Perl does not strongly type integers and strings
       separately and there is no other information available to distinguish between the two in this situation.
       I do not expect that this will be a problem in most situations. Most users will probably use dotted
       decimal or network string notations, and even if they do use the integer notation the likelyhood that
       they will be using the addresses '0.0.3.232' through '0.0.39.15' as indices is relatively low.

METHODS

   ip_as_int
       The class method "Array::IntSpan::IP::ip_as_int" takes as its one parameter the IP address in one of the
       three formats mentioned above and returns the integer notation.

AUTHOR

       Toby Everett, teverett@alascom.att.com