Question

Why does socket.inet_aton returns packed format in python?

If I am storing the IP as integer in Database (mysql), do I have to always extract the integer value or is there any easier way out?

Answer 1

inet_aton is clearly documented to perform exactly this task, and the “why” is even very explicitly explained…:

Convert an IPv4 address from
dotted-quad string format (for
example, ‘123.45.67.89’) to 32-bit
packed binary format, as a string four
characters in length. This is useful
when conversing with a program that
uses the standard C library and needs
objects of type struct in_addr, which
is the C type for the 32-bit packed
binary this function returns.

To convert from a 4-byte string to an integer and vice versa, see the struct module.