How do I validate the format of a MAC address?

Question

What\'s the best way to validate that an MAC address entered by the user?

The format is HH:HH:HH:HH:HH:HH, where each H is a hexadecimal ch

Answer 1

This Regex validates the following MAC format

"Ae:Bd:00:00:00:00"
"00-00-00-00-00-00"
"aaaa.bbbb.cccc"

private static final String MAC_PATTERN = "(([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[-:.]){5}[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})|(([0-9A-Fa-f]{4}\\.){2}[0-9A-Fa-f]{4})";

public class MacRegExp {

    private static final String MAC_PATTERN = "(([0-9A-Fa-f]{2}[-:.]){5}[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})|(([0-9A-Fa-f]{4}\\.){2}[0-9A-Fa-f]{4})";

    static boolean validateMAC(final String mac){          
        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(MAC_PATTERN);
        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(mac);
        return matcher.matches();             
    }

}

Hope this helps