How to store IP address value in integer datatype column.

Most of the time, we use string datatype column like char or varchar to store ip address values. There is a way to store ip address value in numeric datatype column like unsigned interger. There is miscellaneous functions INET_ATON(), INET_NTOA() using which it's possible

INET_ATON() Return the numeric value of an IP address

INET_NTOA() Return the IP address from a numeric value

SELECT INET_ATON('192.168.1.5') AS IP;
+------------+
| IP         |
+------------+
| 3232235781 |
+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The generated number is always in network byte order. For example
192x256^3 + 168x256^2 + 1x256^1 + 5

SELECT INET_NTOA('3232235781') AS IP;
+-------------+
| IP          |
+-------------+
| 192.168.1.5 |
+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)