IP address regex PHP

IP address regex PHP

The regular expressions below can be used to validate if a string is a valid IP address format and to extract an IP address from a string. Please note that this validation can not tell if an IP address actually exists.

JavaScript
JavaScript
Python
Python
Java
Java
C#
C#
PHP
PHP

IPv4 (192.168.0.1) regex

A simple regular expression to validate string against a valid IPv4 format:

"/^(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)$/"

Test it!
/^(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)$/

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

Example code in PHP:

// Validate ipv4 address
$ipv4_validation_regex = "/^(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)$/"; 
echo preg_match($ipv4_validation_regex, '192.168.0.1'); // returns 1

// Extract ipv4 from a string
$extract_ipv4_pattern = "/(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)/";
$string_to_match = 'My server IP addresses are 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2';
preg_match_all($extract_ipv4_pattern, $string_to_match, $matches);
print_r($matches[0])// matches[0] is ['192.168.0.1', '192.168.0.2']

IPv6 regex

The IPv6 regular expression can be used to match IPv6 string or to extract IPv6 from a given string:

"/^(([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(:[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(ffff(:0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9]))$/"

Test it!
/^(([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(:[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(ffff(:0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9]))$/

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

Example code in PHP:

// Validate IPv6 address
$ipv6_validation_regex = "/^(([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:((:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(:[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(ffff(:0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|([0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:((25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\\.){3,3}(25[0-5]|(2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9]))$/"; 
echo preg_match($ipv6_validation_regex, '1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8'); // returns 1

Test it!

True

False

Enter a text in the input above to see the result

Notes on IPv4 and IPv6 address validation

While validation of IP addresses using regex can give a possibility to check their format, it does not guarantee you that those addresses actually exist. You might need to do additional actions to verify that.