Hi guys,


I need to store user IP addresses in my database and I've found out that storing them using the INET_ATON() function is the best way, as it only takes up 7 bytes if you store it as an unsigned integer.

Unfortunately I get this Fatal Error: Fatal error: Call to undefined function inet_aton() in …..


Here is my query:

PHP Code:

<?php
 $db_query = "INSERT INTO `test1`.`comments` (`comment_title`, `nickname_ID`, `ip_ID`, `comment_text`) VALUES ('".mysql_real_escape_string($formtitle)."', '".mysql_real_escape_string($formname)."', '".inet_aton($userIP)."', '".mysql_real_escape_string($formtext)."');";
 ?>

Except for the inet_aton() bit, everything else is working fine. But how can inet_aton() be an undefined function when it is a built in MySQL function?

But how can inet_aton() be an undefined function when it is a built in MySQL function?

Because the way you are calling it, you try to apply an PHP function to a string.
And inet_aton() doesn't exists in PHP...

PHP Code:

$db_query = "INSERT INTO `test1`.`comments` (`comment_title`, `nickname_ID`, `ip_ID`, `comment_text`) VALUES ('".mysql_real_escape_string($formtitle)."', '".mysql_real_escape_string($formname)."', '".inet_aton($userIP)."', '".mysql_real_escape_string($formtext)."');"; 


should be

PHP Code:

$db_query = "INSERT INTO `test1`.`comments` (`comment_title`, `nickname_ID`, `ip_ID`, `comment_text`) VALUES ('".mysql_real_escape_string($formtitle)."', '".mysql_real_escape_string($formname)."', inet_aton($userIP), '".mysql_real_escape_string($formtext)."');"; 


Thanks for replying, Tripy. Unfortunately I got a SYNTAX error when I did it your way. Then I did some thinking and realised you were actually right and I tried your way again but I also added a single quote to the $userIP variable like this:
INET_ATON('$userIP')
And it worked! Thanks for pointing out the PHP and MySQL functions difference.

Oh right.. Sorry.
I'm so used to do procedural t-sql these days (programming inside the db, where those quotes are not needed anymore), that I've forgot that it took a string as parameter.