What's the minimum length of an IP address in string representation?

Question

Just wondering about the minimum character count of an IPv4 / IPv6 address in string representation. What's the shortest valid IP address?

Mareah

Answer 1

1.1.1.1 would be a valid IP address, so the answer to your question is "7".

Arterial

This is not true. IP addresses can be represented in a variety of valid formats, some of which are shorter than this. (I'm looking for a reference right now.) EDIT: there don't appear to be any formats which are shorter than this. – Perishable

If you can find a format that doesn't include all four octets, then I'd love to know what it is. And, BTW, if that was your downvote, it would have made better sense after you had posted an example of a shorter address format. – Arterial

It was my downvote, and I haven't found a shorter format. I've upvoted now. Apologies. – Perishable

Hmm, 1.0.0.0 would also be valid and could be expressed as 1 in hex - or am I missing something? – Scyphus

You are missing that that is not a valid format for the string representation of an IP address. – Arterial

Is this still true? :: is a valid IPv6 representation. – Briggs

ill take 7 as an answer, but id like to know the answer with port included – Ate

@JohnSaunders You can omit the first 3 octets if they are zero. Try ping 127.1! – Gaitskell

The answer by @YvesDorfsman should be the accepted answer. – Arterial

Answer 2

Technically, you can omit the first three octects if the are 0, therefore shortest ipv4 address is one byte, it is "1", a shorthand for "0.0.0.1".

Gaitskell