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IP Addresses in the NetDB Database

IP addresses are stored in an internal normalized format in the NetDB Oracle database. In order to allow this internal format to evolve, programs accessing the database must not directly manipulate these values. Instead, they should use the functions and types provided by the IP package.

Tables in the Oracle version of NetDB use two columns for IP addresses - one for the internal normalized version, and one for the familiar text version (suitable for printing). Columns containing the text version are identified by a '_txt' suffix. For example, the broadcast address of an IP address space is stored in columns named broadcast and broadcast_txt. The normalized version is for comparisons and sorting; the text version is for display purposes.

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