9.11. Network Address Functions and Operators

Table 9-31 shows the operators available for the cidr and inet types. The operators << , <<= , >> , and >>= test for subnet inclusion. They consider only the network parts of the two addresses, ignoring any host part, and determine whether one network part is identical to or a subnet of the other.

Table 9-31. cidr and inet Operators

Operator Description Example
< is less than inet '192.168.1.5' < inet '192.168.1.6'
<= is less than or equal inet '192.168.1.5' <= inet '192.168.1.5'
= equals inet '192.168.1.5' = inet '192.168.1.5'
>= is greater or equal inet '192.168.1.5' >= inet '192.168.1.5'
> is greater than inet '192.168.1.5' > inet '192.168.1.4'
<> is not equal inet '192.168.1.5' <> inet '192.168.1.4'
<< is contained within inet '192.168.1.5' << inet '192.168.1/24'
<<= is contained within or equals inet '192.168.1/24' <<= inet '192.168.1/24'
>> contains inet '192.168.1/24' >> inet '192.168.1.5'
>>= contains or equals inet '192.168.1/24' >>= inet '192.168.1/24'
~ bitwise NOT ~ inet '192.168.1.6'
& bitwise AND inet '192.168.1.6' & inet '0.0.0.255'
| bitwise OR inet '192.168.1.6' | inet '0.0.0.255'
+ addition inet '192.168.1.6' + 25
- subtraction inet '192.168.1.43' - 36
- subtraction inet '192.168.1.43' - inet '192.168.1.19'

Table 9-32 shows the functions available for use with the cidr and inet types. The host , text , and abbrev functions are primarily intended to offer alternative display formats.

Table 9-32. cidr and inet Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
abbrev ( inet ) text abbreviated display format as text abbrev(inet '10.1.0.0/16') 10.1.0.0/16
abbrev ( cidr ) text abbreviated display format as text abbrev(cidr '10.1.0.0/16') 10.1/16
broadcast ( inet ) inet broadcast address for network broadcast('192.168.1.5/24') 192.168.1.255/24
family ( inet ) int extract family of address; 4 for IPv4, 6 for IPv6 family('::1') 6
host ( inet ) text extract IP address as text host('192.168.1.5/24') 192.168.1.5
hostmask ( inet ) inet construct host mask for network hostmask('192.168.23.20/30') 0.0.0.3
masklen ( inet ) int extract netmask length masklen('192.168.1.5/24') 24
netmask ( inet ) inet construct netmask for network netmask('192.168.1.5/24') 255.255.255.0
network ( inet ) cidr extract network part of address network('192.168.1.5/24') 192.168.1.0/24
set_masklen ( inet , int ) inet set netmask length for inet value set_masklen('192.168.1.5/24', 16) 192.168.1.5/16
set_masklen ( cidr , int ) cidr set netmask length for cidr value set_masklen('192.168.1.0/24'::cidr, 16) 192.168.0.0/16
text ( inet ) text extract IP address and netmask length as text text(inet '192.168.1.5') 192.168.1.5/32

Any cidr value can be cast to inet implicitly or explicitly; therefore, the functions shown above as operating on inet also work on cidr values. (Where there are separate functions for inet and cidr , it is because the behavior should be different for the two cases.) Also, it is permitted to cast an inet value to cidr . When this is done, any bits to the right of the netmask are silently zeroed to create a valid cidr value. In addition, you can cast a text value to inet or cidr using normal casting syntax: for example, inet( expression ) or colname ::cidr .

Table 9-33 shows the functions available for use with the macaddr type. The function trunc ( macaddr ) returns a MAC address with the last 3 bytes set to zero. This can be used to associate the remaining prefix with a manufacturer.

Table 9-33. macaddr Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
trunc ( macaddr ) macaddr set last 3 bytes to zero trunc(macaddr '12:34:56:78:90:ab') 12:34:56:00:00:00

The macaddr type also supports the standard relational operators ( > , <= , etc.) for lexicographical ordering.