Formatting MAC address in C#

Question

In my C# application, I want to get my MAC address by using NetworkInterface class as the following:

NetworkInterface nic in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces()
{
    mac = nic.GetPhysicalAddress()
}

But this code returns the MAC without ':' or any other separator.

How can I retrieve the MAC in this format: 88:88:88:88:87:88 using the code above ONLY?

"using the code above ONLY"? If that doesn't return the MAC address with any separators... you can't use that only. — BoltClock, Sep 12 '11 at 06:50

score 37 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '11 at 06:54

37

try

mac = string.Join (":", (from z in nic.GetPhysicalAddress().GetAddressBytes() select z.ToString ("X2")).ToArray());

answered Sep 12 '11 at 06:54

Yahia

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10

in .NET 4 it can be even shorter `mac = string.Join (":", nic.GetPhysicalAddress().GetAddressBytes().Select(b => b.ToString("X2")));` – Firo Feb 28 '13 at 08:08
1

Or: `mac = string.Join (":", Array.ConvertAll(nic.GetPhysicalAddress().GetAddressBytes(), b => b.ToString("X2")));` – dahall Mar 31 '20 at 18:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 12 '11 at 06:53

3

The help for the command shows one way:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.networkinformation.physicaladdress.aspx

    PhysicalAddress address = adapter.GetPhysicalAddress();
    byte[] bytes = address.GetAddressBytes();
    for(int i = 0; i< bytes.Length; i++)
    {
        // Display the physical address in hexadecimal.
        Console.Write("{0}", bytes[i].ToString("X2"));
        // Insert a hyphen after each byte, unless we are at the end of the 
        // address.
        if (i != bytes.Length -1)
        {
             Console.Write("-");
        }
    }
    Console.WriteLine();

answered Sep 12 '11 at 06:53

Joe

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7

This can be done even shorter: `BitConverter.ToString(byte[])` does exactly this formatting. – eFloh Sep 12 '11 at 06:59
@eFloh: Post that as an answer. – BoltClock Sep 12 '11 at 07:03
@BoltClock: This is already in the post linked below and only applies to this post, as it doesn't produce the requested output. See [this answer to Getting MAC Address C#](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3157246/getting-mac-address-c/3157309#3157309) for an actual response. – eFloh Sep 12 '11 at 08:13

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

2

Using the comment by eFloh for using BitConverter I was able to do the following (assuming mac is predefined as a string).

foreach (NetworkInterface nic in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces())
{
    mac = BitConverter.ToString(nic.GetPhysicalAddress().GetAddressBytes()).Replace('-', ':');

    //Do whatever else necessary with each mac...
}

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

1
1

answered Oct 23 '12 at 18:38

Jon Peterson

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score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 17 '16 at 15:36

1

Try Something like this:

// Insert Colons on MAC
string MACwithColons = "";
for (int i = 0; i < MAC.Length; i++) {
  MACwithColons = MACwithColons + MAC.Substring(i, 2) + ":";
  i++;
}
MACwithColons = MACwithColons.Substring(0, MACwithColons.Length - 1); // Remove the last colon

edited Jan 17 '16 at 15:36

George Netu

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answered Feb 14 '13 at 23:56

Pabinator

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 04 '16 at 20:05

Where you want to show that, you have to do this:

txtMac.text=getFormatMac(GetMacAddress());
public string GetMacAddress()

{
    NetworkInterface[] nics = NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces();
    String sMacAddress = string.Empty;
    foreach (NetworkInterface adapter in nics)
    {
         if (sMacAddress == String.Empty)// solo retorna la mac de la primera tarjeta
         {
              IPInterfaceProperties properties = adapter.GetIPProperties();
              sMacAddress = adapter.GetPhysicalAddress().ToString();
          }
    }
    return sMacAddress;
}

public string getFormatMac(string sMacAddress)
{
    string MACwithColons = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < macName.Length; i++)
    {
        MACwithColons = MACwithColons + macName.Substring(i, 2) + ":";
        i++;
    }
    MACwithColons = MACwithColons.Substring(0, MACwithColons.Length - 1);

    return MACwithColons;
}

Formatting MAC address in C#

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