Representing a 32-bit integer

blankdon has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

The problem is:

A function is to take a string containing an IP address, such as "192.168.11.5 <http://192.168.11.5/> ". Once it verifies that there's an IP address in the string, the function must produce and return a 32-bit integer representation.

   $test1 = quadToInt("192.168.11.5 <http://192.168.11.5/> ");    
   # $test1 would contain 3232238341.
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The only way I know to get the representation is to use pack after replacing the '.'s with some numeric value like '0' i.e

# generate and return 32-bit integer representation of IP address
$IPaddr =~ s/\./0/g;   
my $rep32bit = pack('N', "$IPaddr"); # unsigned long in 'network order
+'
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This returns 4294967295.
Question: how to get '3232238341' ?
Is there some other way in Perl to produce the 32-bit integer representation besides packing?

Edit: g0n - code tags and formatting

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Re: Representing a 32-bit integer by jettero (Monsignor) on May 22, 2007 at 19:48 UTC
You want unpack, not pack, imo. Although, the document describing pack is a great deal more detailed. Also, see Socket for the `inet_aton` function, which is of great relevance here. `use Socket; print "", unpack("N", inet_aton("192.168.11.5")), "\n";` [download] UPDATE: This has been amusing me for many minutes now (e.g. `unpack("N", inet_aton("google.com"))`). Thanks! http://1089054563/ http://1109866011/ -Paul	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Representing a 32-bit integer by Thelonius (Priest) on May 22, 2007 at 20:35 UTC
Or `unpack "N", pack "C4", split /\./, $IPaddr`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Representing a 32-bit integer by NetWallah (Canon) on May 22, 2007 at 22:00 UTC
To validate that the string you are given actually contains an IP address, you chould/should: `use Regexp::Common qw /net/; if ($givenIP =~/^$RE{net}{IPv4}$/){ # got good IP. }` [download] "An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions." - Robert A. Humphrey "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." - Henry J. Tillman	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Representing a 32-bit integer by Zaxo (Archbishop) on May 22, 2007 at 20:13 UTC
You could torture vec into modifying integer representations, but why avoid pack/unpack? They're fast and made for the job. After Compline, Zaxo	[reply]