Re: IP Address support in spreadsheets?

[Jon Lewis via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2025, Bryan Fields via NANOG wrote:

> Has anyone found a solution to represent IPv4 addresses in a spreadsheet, 
> preferably Google Sheets?  I'm not here to debate the use of spreadsheets for 
> tracking IP addresses, just find something better than storing v4 dotted 
> decimal as text in a spreadsheet.  We don't need v6 at this time; we're using 
> a spreadsheet for tracking addressing, v6 is beyond us.
>
> At minimum we need to store it as a 32 bit INT, and display as dotted 
> decimal.  If there's some way to make it aware of subnet slash notation, so 
> much the better.  I'm a bit at a loss as to why there's no IPv4 number format 
> with how often spreadsheets are the source of truth in some rather large 
> service providers.
>
> Again, not looking for non-spreadsheet solutions to this, and ideally a web 
> interface spreadsheet would be best for sharing.  We don't need a real 
> database if it's on the web :-)

I'm going to lead with echoing the sentiment: a spreadsheet is the wrong 
tool for this job.  There are numerous free IPAM applications purpose 
built for, you know, managing IP address space...but just a bit of 
googling turned up recommendations for IP Tools for Excel (which I've 
never used / never heard of until a minute ago) which may be helpful.
https://ip-tools-for-excel.software.informer.com/

At least it's not a stack of copy paper with each sheet representing a /24 
(the IPAM I inherited at my second ISP job).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jon Lewis, MCP :)              |  I route
 Blue Stream Fiber, Sr. Neteng  |  therefore you are
_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________
_______________________________________________
NANOG mailing list 
https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/nanog () lists nanog org/message/NKPEBDKCWK5SXC75LE5CGFJ7UPQU2BKS/