IPV6_STRING_TO_NUM_OR_NULL

inet6_aton

Alias for ipv6_string_to_num_or_null.

Description

Converts an IPv6 text address to a 16-byte binary representation.

Syntax

IPV6_STRING_TO_NUM_OR_NULL(<ipv6_string>)

Parameters

• <ipv6_string>: String type IPv6 address

Return Value

Return Type: VARCHAR (16-byte binary, nullable)

Return Value Meaning:

• Returns the 16-byte binary encoding of IPv6
• Returns NULL when input is NULL
• Returns NULL for invalid IPv6 strings
• If input is IPv4 text, returns equivalent IPv6 address (::ffff:<ipv4>)

Usage Notes

• Behaves consistently with ipv6_string_to_num_or_null: returns NULL for invalid input
• Commonly used for compatibility with MySQL's INET6_ATON syntax

Examples

Convert IPv6 text 1111::ffff to 16-byte binary (displayed in hex).

select hex(ipv6_string_to_num_or_null('1111::ffff')) as v6;
+----------------------------------+
| v6                               |
+----------------------------------+
| 1111000000000000000000000000FFFF |
+----------------------------------+

IPv4 text is automatically mapped to IPv6 (::ffff:<ipv4>), then returned as 16-byte binary.

select hex(ipv6_string_to_num_or_null('192.168.0.1')) as mapped;
+----------------------------------+
| mapped                           |
+----------------------------------+
| 00000000000000000000FFFFC0A80001 |
+----------------------------------+

Parameter as NULL returns NULL

select hex(ipv6_string_to_num_or_null(NULL)) as null_result;
+-------------+
| null_result |
+-------------+
| NULL        |
+-------------+

Returns NULL for invalid input (no exception thrown).

select hex(ipv6_string_to_num_or_null('notaaddress')) as invalid;
+----------+
| invalid  |
+----------+
| NULL     |
+----------+

Keywords

INET6_ATON, IPV6_STRING_TO_NUM_OR_NULL