note dws <i>Regular expressions should not be used to parse IP addresses because IP addresses can be expressed in several forms...</i> <p> "Yes, but..." <p> There are plenty of situations, such as parsing server logfiles, where four-part IP addresses are a given. In these cases, using a regex is just fine. <p> The only case I've actually run across in practice where using a regex isn't safe is when parsing URLs where some spammer has obscured an IP address by using a non-standard forms. <p> 221512 221512