Java For Dummies Quick Reference

InetAddress Class

Package: java.net

The InetAddress class represents an IP address. It includes several useful methods that let you create InetAddress objects from strings that represent IP addresses or host names, or perform useful lookups to find out the IP address for a given host name (or vice versa).

The InetAddress class doesn’t have a constructor. Instead, the typical way to create it is to call one of its static methods, such as getByName.

Methods

Method	Description
byte[] getAddress()	Returns the raw IP address as an array of bytes.
static InetAddress[] getAllByName(String host)	Returns an array of Internet addresses for the specified host name. This method performs a DNS query to get the addresses. It throws UnknownHostException if the specified host doesn’t exist.
static InetAddress getByName(String host)	Returns the Internet address for the specified host name or IP address. This method performs a DNS query to get the address. It throws UnknownHostException if the specified host doesn’t exist.
String getCannonical HostName()	Returns the fully qualified host name for this IP address.
String getHost Address()	Returns the IP address as a formatted string.
String getHostName()	Performs a reverse DNS lookup to get the host name for this IP address.
boolean isReachable (int timeout)	Determines whether the IP address can be reached. The attempt fails if no response is reached before the timeout period (in milliseconds) ...