Solution Checker

Question

How can I check if a given string is a valid URL address?

My knowledge of regular expressions is basic and doesn't allow me to choose from the hundreds of regular expressions I've already seen on the web.

Answer 1

Solution 1

I wrote my URL (actually IRI, internationalized) pattern to comply with RFC 3987 (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3987.html). These are in PCRE syntax.

For absolute IRIs (internationalized):

/^[a-z](?:[-a-z0-9\+\.])*:(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*@)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){6}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){5}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){4}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){3}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){2}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::)|v[0-9a-f]+\.[-a-z0-9\._~!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:]+)\]|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3}|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*)?|(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\/\?])*)?$/i

To also allow relative IRIs:

/^(?:[a-z](?:[-a-z0-9\+\.])*:(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*@)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){6}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){5}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){4}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){3}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){2}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::)|v[0-9a-f]+\.[-a-z0-9\._~!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:]+)\]|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3}|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*)?|(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\/\?])*)?|(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*@)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){6}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){5}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){4}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){3}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){2}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::)|v[0-9a-f]+\.[-a-z0-9\._~!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:]+)\]|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3}|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*)?|(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=@])+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\/\?])*)?)$/i

How they were compiled (in PHP):

<?php

/* Regex convenience functions (character class, non-capturing group) */
function cc($str, $suffix = '', $negate = false) {
    return '[' . ($negate ? '^' : '') . $str . ']' . $suffix;
}
function ncg($str, $suffix = '') {
    return '(?:' . $str . ')' . $suffix;
}

/* Preserved from RFC3986 */

$ALPHA = 'a-z';
$DIGIT = '0-9';
$HEXDIG = $DIGIT . 'a-f';

$sub_delims = '!\\$&\'\\(\\)\\*\\+,;=';
$gen_delims = ':\\/\\?\\#\\[\\]@';
$reserved = $gen_delims . $sub_delims;
$unreserved = '-' . $ALPHA . $DIGIT . '\\._~';

$pct_encoded = '%' . cc($HEXDIG) . cc($HEXDIG);

$dec_octet = ncg(implode('|', array(
    cc($DIGIT),
    cc('1-9') . cc($DIGIT),
    '1' . cc($DIGIT) . cc($DIGIT),
    '2' . cc('0-4') . cc($DIGIT),
    '25' . cc('0-5')
)));

$IPv4address = $dec_octet . ncg('\\.' . $dec_octet, '{3}');

$h16 = cc($HEXDIG, '{1,4}');
$ls32 = ncg($h16 . ':' . $h16 . '|' . $IPv4address);

$IPv6address = ncg(implode('|', array(
    ncg($h16 . ':', '{6}') . $ls32,
    '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{5}') . $ls32,
    ncg($h16, '?') . '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{4}') . $ls32,
    ncg($h16 . ':' . $h16, '?') . '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{3}') . $ls32,
    ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,2}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{2}') . $ls32,
    ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,3}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . $h16 . ':' . $ls32,
    ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,4}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . $ls32,
    ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,5}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . $h16,
    ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,6}') . $h16, '?') . '::',
)));

$IPvFuture = 'v' . cc($HEXDIG, '+') . cc($unreserved . $sub_delims . ':', '+');

$IP_literal = '\\[' . ncg(implode('|', array($IPv6address, $IPvFuture))) . '\\]';

$port = cc($DIGIT, '*');

$scheme = cc($ALPHA) . ncg(cc('-' . $ALPHA . $DIGIT . '\\+\\.'), '*');

/* New or changed in RFC3987 */

$iprivate = '\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}';

$ucschar = '\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}' .
    '\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}' .
    '\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}' .
    '\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}' .
    '\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}' .
    '\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}';

$iunreserved = '-' . $ALPHA . $DIGIT . '\\._~' . $ucschar;

$ipchar = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . ':@'));

$ifragment = ncg($ipchar . '|' . cc('\\/\\?'), '*');

$iquery = ncg($ipchar . '|' . cc($iprivate . '\\/\\?'), '*');

$isegment_nz_nc = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . '@'), '+');
$isegment_nz = ncg($ipchar, '+');
$isegment = ncg($ipchar, '*');

$ipath_empty = '(?!' . $ipchar . ')';
$ipath_rootless = ncg($isegment_nz) . ncg('\\/' . $isegment, '*');
$ipath_noscheme = ncg($isegment_nz_nc) . ncg('\\/' . $isegment, '*');
$ipath_absolute = '\\/' . ncg($ipath_rootless, '?'); // Spec says isegment-nz *( "/" isegment )
$ipath_abempty = ncg('\\/' . $isegment, '*');

$ipath = ncg(implode('|', array(
    $ipath_abempty,
    $ipath_absolute,
    $ipath_noscheme,
    $ipath_rootless,
    $ipath_empty
))) . ')';

$ireg_name = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . '@'), '*');

$ihost = ncg(implode('|', array($IP_literal, $IPv4address, $ireg_name)));
$iuserinfo = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . ':'), '*');
$iauthority = ncg($iuserinfo . '@', '?') . $ihost . ncg(':' . $port, '?');

$irelative_part = ncg(implode('|', array(
    '\\/\\/' . $iauthority . $ipath_abempty . '',
    '' . $ipath_absolute . '',
    '' . $ipath_noscheme . '',
    '' . $ipath_empty . ''
)));

$irelative_ref = $irelative_part . ncg('\\?' . $iquery, '?') . ncg('\\#' . $ifragment, '?');

$ihier_part = ncg(implode('|', array(
    '\\/\\/' . $iauthority . $ipath_abempty . '',
    '' . $ipath_absolute . '',
    '' . $ipath_rootless . '',
    '' . $ipath_empty . ''
)));

$absolute_IRI = $scheme . ':' . $ihier_part . ncg('\\?' . $iquery, '?');

$IRI = $scheme . ':' . $ihier_part . ncg('\\?' . $iquery, '?') . ncg('\\#' . $ifragment, '?');

$IRI_reference = ncg($IRI . '|' . $irelative_ref);

Edit 7 March 2011: Because of the way PHP handles backslashes in quoted strings, these are unusable by default. You'll need to double-escape backslashes except where the backslash has a special meaning in regex. You can do that this way:

$escape_backslash = '/(?<!\\)\\(?![\[\]\\\^\$\.\|\*\+\(\)QEnrtaefvdwsDWSbAZzB1-9GX]|x\{[0-9a-f]{1,4}\}|\c[A-Z]|)/';
$absolute_IRI = preg_replace($escape_backslash, '\\\\', $absolute_IRI);
$IRI = preg_replace($escape_backslash, '\\\\', $IRI);
$IRI_reference = preg_replace($escape_backslash, '\\\\', $IRI_reference);

Answer 2

Solution 2

I've just written up a blog post for a great solution for recognizing URLs in most used formats such as:

www.google.com
http://www.google.com
mailto:somebody@google.com
somebody@google.com
www.url-with-querystring.com/?url=has-querystring

The regular expression used is:

/((([A-Za-z]{3,9}:(?:\/\/)?)(?:[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+@)?[A-Za-z0-9.-]+|(?:www.|[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+@)[A-Za-z0-9.-]+)((?:\/[\+~%\/.\w-_]*)?\??(?:[-\+=&;%@.\w_]*)#?(?:[\w]*))?)/

Answer 3

Solution 3

What platform? If using .NET, use System.Uri.TryCreate, not a regex.

For example:

static bool IsValidUrl(string urlString)
{
    Uri uri;
    return Uri.TryCreate(urlString, UriKind.Absolute, out uri)
        && (uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeHttp
         || uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeHttps
         || uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeFtp
         || uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeMailto
            /*...*/);
}

// In test fixture...

[Test]
void IsValidUrl_Test()
{
    Assert.True(IsValidUrl("http://www.example.com"));
    Assert.False(IsValidUrl("javascript:alert('xss')"));
    Assert.False(IsValidUrl(""));
    Assert.False(IsValidUrl(null));
}

(Thanks to @Yoshi for the tip about javascript:)

Answer 4

Solution 4

Here's what RegexBuddy uses.

(\b(https?|ftp|file)://)?[-A-Za-z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]+[-A-Za-z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]

It matches these below (inside the ** ** marks):

**http://www.regexbuddy.com**  
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/**  
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/index.html**  
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/index.html?source=library**

You can download RegexBuddy at http://www.regexbuddy.com/download.html.

Answer 5

Solution 5

Mathias Bynens has a great article on the best comparison of a lot of regular expressions: In search of the perfect URL validation regex

The best one posted is a little long, but it matches just about anything you can throw at it.

JavaScript version

/^(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@)?(?:(?!(?:10|127)(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!(?:169\.254|192\.168)(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z\u00a1-\uffff0-9]-*)*[a-z\u00a1-\uffff0-9]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\u00a1-\uffff0-9]-*)*[a-z\u00a1-\uffff0-9]+)*(?:\.(?:[a-z\u00a1-\uffff]{2,}))\.?)(?::\d{2,5})?(?:[/?#]\S*)?$/i

PHP version

_^(?:(?:https?|ftp)://)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@)?(?:(?!(?:10|127)(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!(?:169\.254|192\.168)(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]-*)*[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]-*)*[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+)*(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,}))\.?)(?::\d{2,5})?(?:[/?#]\S*)?$_iuS

Answer 6

Solution 6

With regard to eyelidness' answer post that reads "This is based on my reading of the URI specification.": Thanks Eyelidness, yours is the perfect solution I sought, as it is based on the URI spec! Superb work. :)

I had to make two amendments. The first to get the regexp to match IP address URLs correctly in PHP (v5.2.10) with the preg_match() function.

I had to add one more set of parenthesis to the line above "IP Address" around the pipes:

)|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}(?#

Not sure why.

I have also reduced the top level domain minimum length from 3 to 2 letters to support .co.uk and similar.

Final code:

/^(https?|ftp):\/\/(?#                                      protocol
)(([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+(?#         username
)(:([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+)?(?#      password
)@)?(?#                                                     auth requires @
)((([a-z0-9]\.|[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]\.)*(?#             domain segments AND
)[a-z][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9](?#                                 top level domain  OR
)|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}(?#
    )(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?#             IP address
))(:\d+)?(?#                                                port
))(((\/+([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)*(?# path
)(\?([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)(?#      query string
)?)?)?(?#                                                   path and query string optional
)(#([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?(?#      fragment
)$/i

This modified version was not checked against the URI specification so I can't vouch for it's compliance, it was altered to handle URLs on local network environments and two digit TLDs as well as other kinds of Web URL, and to work better in the PHP setup I use.

As PHP code:

define('URL_FORMAT', 
'/^(https?):\/\/'.                                         // protocol
'(([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+'.         // username
'(:([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+)?'.      // password
'@)?(?#'.                                                  // auth requires @
')((([a-z0-9]\.|[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]\.)*'.                      // domain segments AND
'[a-z][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]'.                                 // top level domain  OR
'|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}'.
'(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])'.                 // IP address
')(:\d+)?'.                                                // port
')(((\/+([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)*'. // path
'(\?([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)'.      // query string
'?)?)?'.                                                   // path and query string optional
'(#([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?'.      // fragment
'$/i');

Here is a test program in PHP which validates a variety of URLs using the regex:

<?php

define('URL_FORMAT',
'/^(https?):\/\/'.                                         // protocol
'(([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+'.         // username
'(:([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+)?'.      // password
'@)?(?#'.                                                  // auth requires @
')((([a-z0-9]\.|[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]\.)*'.                      // domain segments AND
'[a-z][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]'.                                 // top level domain  OR
'|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}'.
'(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])'.                 // IP address
')(:\d+)?'.                                                // port
')(((\/+([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)*'. // path
'(\?([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)'.      // query string
'?)?)?'.                                                   // path and query string optional
'(#([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:@&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?'.      // fragment
'$/i');

/**
 * Verify the syntax of the given URL. 
 * 
 * @access public
 * @param $url The URL to verify.
 * @return boolean
 */
function is_valid_url($url) {
  if (str_starts_with(strtolower($url), 'http://localhost')) {
    return true;
  }
  return preg_match(URL_FORMAT, $url);
}


/**
 * String starts with something
 * 
 * This function will return true only if input string starts with
 * niddle
 * 
 * @param string $string Input string
 * @param string $niddle Needle string
 * @return boolean
 */
function str_starts_with($string, $niddle) {
      return substr($string, 0, strlen($niddle)) == $niddle;
}


/**
 * Test a URL for validity and count results.
 * @param url url
 * @param expected expected result (true or false)
 */

$numtests = 0;
$passed = 0;

function test_url($url, $expected) {
  global $numtests, $passed;
  $numtests++;
  $valid = is_valid_url($url);
  echo "URL Valid?: " . ($valid?"yes":"no") . " for URL: $url. Expected: ".($expected?"yes":"no").". ";
  if($valid == $expected) {
    echo "PASS\n"; $passed++;
  } else {
    echo "FAIL\n";
  }
}

echo "URL Tests:\n\n";

test_url("http://localserver/projects/public/assets/javascript/widgets/UserBoxMenu/widget.css", true);
test_url("http://www.google.com", true);
test_url("http://www.google.co.uk/projects/my%20folder/test.php", true);
test_url("https://myserver.localdomain", true);
test_url("http://192.168.1.120/projects/index.php", true);
test_url("http://192.168.1.1/projects/index.php", true);
test_url("http://projectpier-server.localdomain/projects/public/assets/javascript/widgets/UserBoxMenu/widget.css", true);
test_url("https://2.4.168.19/project-pier?c=test&a=b", true);
test_url("https://localhost/a/b/c/test.php?c=controller&arg1=20&arg2=20", true);
test_url("http://user:password@localhost/a/b/c/test.php?c=controller&arg1=20&arg2=20", true);

echo "\n$passed out of $numtests tests passed.\n\n";

?>

Thanks again to eyelidness for the regex!

Answer 7

Solution 7

The post Getting parts of a URL (Regex) discusses parsing a URL to identify its various components. If you want to check if a URL is well-formed, it should be sufficient for your needs.

If you need to check if it's actually valid, you'll eventually have to try to access whatever's on the other end.

In general, though, you'd probably be better off using a function that's supplied to you by your framework or another library. Many platforms include functions that parse URLs. For example, there's Python's urlparse module, and in .NET you could use the System.Uri class's constructor as a means of validating the URL.

Answer 8

Solution 8

This might not be a job for regexes, but for existing tools in your language of choice. You probably want to use existing code that has already been written, tested, and debugged.

In PHP, use the parse_url function.

Perl: URI module.

Ruby: URI module.

.NET: 'Uri' class

Regexes are not a magic wand you wave at every problem that happens to involve strings.

Answer 9

Solution 9

This will match all URLs

with or without http/https
with or without www

...including sub-domains and those new top-level domain name extensions such as .museum, .academy, .foundation etc. which can have up to 63 characters (not just .com, .net, .info etc.)

(([\w]+:)?//)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?@)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,63}(:[\d]+)?(/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?

Because today maximum length of the available top-level domain name extension is 13 characters such as .international, you can change the number 63 in expression to 13 to prevent someone misusing it.

as javascript

var urlreg=/(([\w]+:)?\/\/)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?@)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,63}(:[\d]+)?(\/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?/;

$('textarea').on('input',function(){
  var url = $(this).val();
  $(this).toggleClass('invalid', urlreg.test(url) == false)
});

$('textarea').trigger('input');

textarea{color:green;}
.invalid{color:red;}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<textarea>http://www.google.com</textarea>
<textarea>http//www.google.com</textarea>
<textarea>googlecom</textarea>
<textarea>https://www.google.com</textarea>

Expand snippet

Wikipedia Article: List of all internet top-level domains

Answer 10

Solution 10

Non-validating URI-reference Parser

For reference purposes, here's the IETF Spec: (TXT | HTML). In particular, Appendix B. Parsing a URI Reference with a Regular Expression demonstrates how to parse a valid regex. This is described as,

for an example of a non-validating URI-reference parser that will take any given string and extract the URI components.

Here's the regex they provide:

 ^(([^:/?#]+):)?(//([^/?#]*))?([^?#]*)(\?([^#]*))?(#(.*))?

As someone else said, it's probably best to leave this to a lib/framework you're already using.

Answer 11

Solution 11

^(http:\/\/www\.|https:\/\/www\.|http:\/\/|https:\/\/)?[a-z0-9]+([\-\.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*\.[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.*)?$

live demo: https://regex101.com/r/HUNasA/2

I have tested various expressions to match my requirements.

As a user I can hit browser search bar with following strings:

valid urls

invalid urls

http://google
https://google.c
google
google.
.google
.google.com
goole.c
...

Answer 12

Solution 12

The best regular expression for URL for me would be:

"(([\w]+:)?//)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-F\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?@)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,4}(:[\d]+)?(/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?"

Answer 13

Solution 13

Here is a good rule that covers all possible cases: ports, params and etc

/(https?:\/\/(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]{0,61}[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]{0,61}[a-z0-9])(:?\d*)\/?([a-z_\/0-9\-#.]*)\??([a-z_\/0-9\-#=&]*)/g

Answer 14

Solution 14

        function validateURL(textval) {
            var urlregex = new RegExp(
            "^(http|https|ftp)\://([a-zA-Z0-9\.\-]+(\:[a-zA-Z0-9\.&amp;%\$\-]+)*@)*((25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[1-9])\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[1-9]|0)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[1-9]|0)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[0-9])|localhost|([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)*[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.(com|edu|gov|int|mil|net|org|biz|arpa|info|name|pro|aero|coop|museum|[a-zA-Z]{2}))(\:[0-9]+)*(/($|[a-zA-Z0-9\.\,\?\'\\\+&amp;%\$#\=~_\-]+))*$");
            return urlregex.test(textval);
        }

Matches http://site.com/dir/file.php?var=moo | ftp://user:pass@site.com:21/file/dir

Non-Matches site.com | http://site.com/dir//

Answer 15

Solution 15

I was not able to find the regex I was looking for so I modified a regex to fullfill my requirements, and apparently it seems to work fine now. My requirements were:

Match URLs w/o protocol (www.gooogle.com)
Match URLs with query parameters and path (http://subdomain.web-site.com/cgi-bin/perl.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2e)
Don't match URLs where there are not acceptable characters (e.g. "'£), for instance: (www.google.com/somthing"/somethingmore)

Here what I came up with, any suggestion is appreciated:

@Test
    public void testWebsiteUrl(){
        String regularExpression = "((http|ftp|https):\\/\\/)?[\\w\\-_]+(\\.[\\w\\-_]+)+([\\w\\-\\.,@?^=%&amp;:/~\\+#]*[\\w\\-\\@?^=%&amp;/~\\+#])?";

        assertTrue("www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("http://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("http://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("https://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("https://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("google.com".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("google.mu".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("mes.intnet.mu".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("cse.uom.ac.mu".matches(regularExpression));

        assertTrue("http://www.google.com/path".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("http://subdomain.web-site.com/cgi-bin/perl.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2e".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("http://www.google.com/?queryparam=123".matches(regularExpression));
        assertTrue("http://www.google.com/path?queryparam=123".matches(regularExpression));

        assertFalse("www..dr.google".matches(regularExpression));

        assertFalse("www:google.com".matches(regularExpression));

        assertFalse("https://www@.google.com".matches(regularExpression));

        assertFalse("https://www.google.com\"".matches(regularExpression));
        assertFalse("https://www.google.com'".matches(regularExpression));

        assertFalse("http://www.google.com/path'".matches(regularExpression));
        assertFalse("http://subdomain.web-site.com/cgi-bin/perl.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2e'".matches(regularExpression));
        assertFalse("http://www.google.com/?queryparam=123'".matches(regularExpression));
        assertFalse("http://www.google.com/path?queryparam=12'3".matches(regularExpression));

    }

Answer 16

Solution 16

I wrote a little groovy version that you can run

it matches the following URLs (which is good enough for me)

public static void main(args) {
    String url = "go to http://www.m.abut.ly/abc its awesome"
    url = url.replaceAll(/https?:\/\/w{0,3}\w*?\.(\w*?\.)?\w{2,3}\S*|www\.(\w*?\.)?\w*?\.\w{2,3}\S*|(\w*?\.)?\w*?\.\w{2,3}[\/\?]\S*/ , { it ->
        "woof${it}woof"
    })
    println url 
}

http://google.com
http://google.com/help.php
http://google.com/help.php?a=5

http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/help.php
http://www.google.com?a=5

google.com?a=5
google.com/help.php
google.com/help.php?a=5

http://www.m.google.com/help.php?a=5 (and all its permutations)
www.m.google.com/help.php?a=5 (and all its permutations)
m.google.com/help.php?a=5 (and all its permutations)

The important thing for any URLs that don't start with http or www is that they must include a / or ?

I bet this can be tweaked a little more but it does the job pretty nice for being so short and compact... because you can pretty much split it in 3:

find anything that starts with http:

https?:\/\/w{0,3}\w*?\.\w{2,3}\S*

find anything that starts with www:

www\.\w*?\.\w{2,3}\S*

or find anything that must have a text then a dot then at least 2 letters and then a ? or /:

\w*?\.\w{2,3}[\/\?]\S*

Answer 17

Solution 17

function validateURL(textval) {
            var urlregex = new RegExp(
            "^(http|https|ftp)\://[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(:[a-zA-Z0-9]*)?/?([a-zA-Z0-9\-\._\?\,\'/\\\+&amp;%\$#\=~])*$");
            return urlregex.test(textval);
        }

Matches http://www.asdah.com/~joe | ftp://ftp.asdah.co.uk:2828/asdah%20asdah.gif | https://asdah.gov/asdh-ah.as

Answer 18

Solution 18

If you really search for the ultimate match, you probably find it on "A Good Url Regular Expression?".

But a regex that really matches all possible domains and allows anything that is allowed according to RFCs is horribly long and unreadable, trust me ;-)

Answer 19

Solution 19

I've been working on an in-depth article discussing URI validation using regular expressions. It is based on RFC3986.

Regular Expression URI Validation

Although the article is not yet complete, I have come up with a PHP function which does a pretty good job of validating HTTP and FTP URLs. Here is the current version:

// function url_valid($url) { Rev:20110423_2000
//
// Return associative array of valid URI components, or FALSE if $url is not
// RFC-3986 compliant. If the passed URL begins with: "www." or "ftp.", then
// "http://" or "ftp://" is prepended and the corrected full-url is stored in
// the return array with a key name "url". This value should be used by the caller.
//
// Return value: FALSE if $url is not valid, otherwise array of URI components:
// e.g.
// Given: "http://www.jmrware.com:80/articles?height=10&width=75#fragone"
// Array(
//    [scheme] => http
//    [authority] => www.jmrware.com:80
//    [userinfo] =>
//    [host] => www.jmrware.com
//    [IP_literal] =>
//    [IPV6address] =>
//    [ls32] =>
//    [IPvFuture] =>
//    [IPv4address] =>
//    [regname] => www.jmrware.com
//    [port] => 80
//    [path_abempty] => /articles
//    [query] => height=10&width=75
//    [fragment] => fragone
//    [url] => http://www.jmrware.com:80/articles?height=10&width=75#fragone
// )
function url_valid($url) {
    if (strpos($url, 'www.') === 0) $url = 'http://'. $url;
    if (strpos($url, 'ftp.') === 0) $url = 'ftp://'. $url;
    if (!preg_match('/# Valid absolute URI having a non-empty, valid DNS host.
        ^
        (?P<scheme>[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9+\-.]*):\/\/
        (?P<authority>
          (?:(?P<userinfo>(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)@)?
          (?P<host>
            (?P<IP_literal>
              \[
              (?:
                (?P<IPV6address>
                  (?:                                                (?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){6}
                  |                                                ::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){5}
                  | (?:                          [0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){4}
                  | (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){3}
                  | (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){2}
                  | (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::   [0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:
                  | (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::
                  )
                  (?P<ls32>[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}
                  | (?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}
                       (?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)
                  )
                |   (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::   [0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}
                |   (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::
                )
              | (?P<IPvFuture>[Vv][0-9A-Fa-f]+\.[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:]+)
              )
              \]
            )
          | (?P<IPv4address>(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}
                               (?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))
          | (?P<regname>(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})+)
          )
          (?::(?P<port>[0-9]*))?
        )
        (?P<path_abempty>(?:\/(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)*)
        (?:\?(?P<query>       (?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@\\/?]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*))?
        (?:\#(?P<fragment>    (?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@\\/?]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*))?
        $
        /mx', $url, $m)) return FALSE;
    switch ($m['scheme']) {
    case 'https':
    case 'http':
        if ($m['userinfo']) return FALSE; // HTTP scheme does not allow userinfo.
        break;
    case 'ftps':
    case 'ftp':
        break;
    default:
        return FALSE;   // Unrecognized URI scheme. Default to FALSE.
    }
    // Validate host name conforms to DNS "dot-separated-parts".
    if ($m['regname']) { // If host regname specified, check for DNS conformance.
        if (!preg_match('/# HTTP DNS host name.
            ^                      # Anchor to beginning of string.
            (?!.{256})             # Overall host length is less than 256 chars.
            (?:                    # Group dot separated host part alternatives.
              [A-Za-z0-9]\.        # Either a single alphanum followed by dot
            |                      # or... part has more than one char (63 chars max).
              [A-Za-z0-9]          # Part first char is alphanum (no dash).
              [A-Za-z0-9\-]{0,61}  # Internal chars are alphanum plus dash.
              [A-Za-z0-9]          # Part last char is alphanum (no dash).
              \.                   # Each part followed by literal dot.
            )*                     # Zero or more parts before top level domain.
            (?:                    # Explicitly specify top level domains.
              com|edu|gov|int|mil|net|org|biz|
              info|name|pro|aero|coop|museum|
              asia|cat|jobs|mobi|tel|travel|
              [A-Za-z]{2})         # Country codes are exactly two alpha chars.
              \.?                  # Top level domain can end in a dot.
            $                      # Anchor to end of string.
            /ix', $m['host'])) return FALSE;
    }
    $m['url'] = $url;
    for ($i = 0; isset($m[$i]); ++$i) unset($m[$i]);
    return $m; // return TRUE == array of useful named $matches plus the valid $url.
}

This function utilizes two regexes; one to match a subset of valid generic URIs (absolute ones having a non-empty host), and a second to validate the DNS "dot-separated-parts" host name. Although this function currently validates only HTTP and FTP schemes, it is structured such that it can be easily extended to handle other schemes.

Answer 20

Solution 20

I use this regex:

((https?:)?//)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?@)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,63}(:[\d]+)?(/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?

To support both:

http://stackoverflow.com
https://stackoverflow.com

And:

//stackoverflow.com

Answer 21

Solution 21

Here's a ready-to-go Java version from the Android source code. This is the best one I've found.

public static final Matcher WEB  = Pattern.compile(new StringBuilder()                 
.append("((?:(http|https|Http|Https|rtsp|Rtsp):")                      
.append("\\/\\/(?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\\$\\-\\_\\.\\+\\!\\*\\'\\(\\)")                         
.append("\\,\\;\\?\\&\\=]|(?:\\%[a-fA-F0-9]{2})){1,64}(?:\\:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\\$\\-\\_")                         
.append("\\.\\+\\!\\*\\'\\(\\)\\,\\;\\?\\&\\=]|(?:\\%[a-fA-F0-9]{2})){1,25})?\\@)?)?")                         
.append("((?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\\-]{0,64}\\.)+")   // named host                            
.append("(?:")   // plus top level domain                         
.append("(?:aero|arpa|asia|a[cdefgilmnoqrstuwxz])")                         
.append("|(?:biz|b[abdefghijmnorstvwyz])")                         
.append("|(?:cat|com|coop|c[acdfghiklmnoruvxyz])")                         
.append("|d[ejkmoz]")                         
.append("|(?:edu|e[cegrstu])")                         
.append("|f[ijkmor]")                         
.append("|(?:gov|g[abdefghilmnpqrstuwy])")                         
.append("|h[kmnrtu]")                         
.append("|(?:info|int|i[delmnoqrst])")                         
.append("|(?:jobs|j[emop])")                         
.append("|k[eghimnrwyz]")                         
.append("|l[abcikrstuvy]")                         
.append("|(?:mil|mobi|museum|m[acdghklmnopqrstuvwxyz])")                         
.append("|(?:name|net|n[acefgilopruz])")                         
.append("|(?:org|om)")                         
.append("|(?:pro|p[aefghklmnrstwy])")                         
.append("|qa")                         
.append("|r[eouw]")                         
.append("|s[abcdeghijklmnortuvyz]")                         
.append("|(?:tel|travel|t[cdfghjklmnoprtvwz])")                         
.append("|u[agkmsyz]")                         
.append("|v[aceginu]")                         
.append("|w[fs]")                         
.append("|y[etu]")                         
.append("|z[amw]))")                         
.append("|(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4]") // or ip address                                                 
.append("[0-9]|[0-1][0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9])\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]")                             
.append("|[0-1][0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9]|0)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]")                         
.append("[0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9]|0)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1][0-9]{2}")                         
.append("|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])))")                         
.append("(?:\\:\\d{1,5})?)") // plus option port number                             
.append("(\\/(?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\\;\\/\\?\\:\\@\\&\\=\\#\\~")  // plus option query params                         
.append("\\-\\.\\+\\!\\*\\'\\(\\)\\,\\_])|(?:\\%[a-fA-F0-9]{2}))*)?")                         
.append("(?:\\b|$)").toString()                 
).matcher("");

Answer 22

Solution 22

I hope it's helpful for you...

^(http|https):\/\/+[\www\d]+\.[\w]+(\/[\w\d]+)?

Answer 23

Solution 23

For Python, this is the actual URL validating regex used in Django 1.5.1:

import re
regex = re.compile(
        r'^(?:http|ftp)s?://'  # http:// or https://
        r'(?:(?:[A-Z0-9](?:[A-Z0-9-]{0,61}[A-Z0-9])?\.)+(?:[A-Z]{2,6}\.?|[A-Z0-9-]{2,}\.?)|'  # domain...
        r'localhost|'  # localhost...
        r'\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|'  # ...or ipv4
        r'\[?[A-F0-9]*:[A-F0-9:]+\]?)'  # ...or ipv6
        r'(?::\d+)?'  # optional port
        r'(?:/?|[/?]\S+)$', re.IGNORECASE)

This does both ipv4 and ipv6 addresses as well as ports and GET parameters.

Found in the code here, Line 44.

Answer 24

Solution 24

This one works for me very well. (https?|ftp)://(www\d?|[a-zA-Z0-9]+)?\.[a-zA-Z0-9-]+(\:|\.)([a-zA-Z0-9.]+|(\d+)?)([/?:].*)?

Answer 25

Solution 25

Here is a regex I made which extracts the different parts from an URL:

^((?:https?|ftp):\/\/?)?([^:/\s.]+\.[^:/\s]|localhost)(:\d+)?((?:\/\w+)*\/)?([\w\-.]+[^#?\s]+)?([^#]+)?(#[\w-]+)?$

((?:https?|ftp):\/\/?)?(group 1): extracts the protocol
([^:/\s.]+\.[^:/\s]|localhost)(group 2): extracts the hostname
(:\d+)?(group 3): extracts the port number
((?:\/\w+)*\/)?([\w\-.]+[^#?\s]+)?(groups 4 & 5): extracts the path part
([^#]+)?(group 6): extracts the query part
(#[\w-]+)?(group 7): extracts the hash part

For every part of the regex listed above, you can remove the ending ? to force it (or add one to make it facultative). You can also remove the ^ at the beginning and $ at the end of the regex so it won't need to match the whole string.

See it on regex101.

Note: this regex is not 100% safe and may accept some strings which are not necessarily valid URLs but it does indeed validate some criterias. Its main goal was to extract the different parts of an URL not to validate it.

Answer 26

Solution 26

For convenience here's a one-liner regexp for URL's that will also match localhost where you're more likely to have ports than .com or similar.

(http(s)?:\/\/.)?(www\.)?[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%._\+~#=]{2,256}(\.[a-z]{2,6}|:[0-9]{3,4})\b([-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&\/\/=]*)

Answer 27

Solution 27

I found the following Regex for URLs, tested successfully with 500+ URLs:

/\b(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@)?(?:(?!10(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!127(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!169\.254(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!192\.168(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+)*(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,})))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:\/[^\s]*)?\b/gi

I know it looks ugly, but the good thing is that it works. :)

Explanation and demo with 581 random URLs on regex101.

Source: In search of the perfect URL validation regex

Answer 28

Solution 28

To Match a URL there are various option and it depend on you requirement. below are few.

_(^|[\s.:;?\-\]<\(])(https?://[-\w;/?:@&=+$\|\_.!~*\|'()\[\]%#,]+[\w/#](\(\))?)(?=$|[\s',\|\(\).:;?\-\[\]>\)])_i

#\b(([\w-]+://?|www[.])[^\s()<>]+(?:\([\w\d]+\)|([^[:punct:]\s]|/)))#iS

And there is a link which gives you more than 10 different variations of validation for URL.

https://mathiasbynens.be/demo/url-regex

Answer 29

Solution 29

I tried to formulate my version of url. My requirement was to capture instances in a String where possible url can be cse.uom.ac.mu - noting that it is not preceded by http nor www

String regularExpression = "((((ht{2}ps?://)?)((w{3}\\.)?))?)[^.&&[a-zA-Z0-9]][a-zA-Z0-9.-]+[^.&&[a-zA-Z0-9]](\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3})";

assertTrue("www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("https://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("https://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("mes.intnet.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("cse.uom.ac.mu".matches(regularExpression));

//cannot contain 2 '.' after www
assertFalse("www..dr.google".matches(regularExpression));

//cannot contain 2 '.' just before com
assertFalse("www.dr.google..com".matches(regularExpression));

// to test case where url www must be followed with a '.'
assertFalse("www:google.com".matches(regularExpression));

// to test case where url www must be followed with a '.'
//assertFalse("http://wwwe.google.com".matches(regularExpression));

// to test case where www must be preceded with a '.'
assertFalse("https://www@.google.com".matches(regularExpression));

Answer 30

Solution 30

whats wrong with plain and simple FILTER_VALIDATE_URL ?

 $url = "http://www.example.com";

if(!filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL))
  {
  echo "URL is not valid";
  }
else
  {
  echo "URL is valid";
  }

I know its not the question exactly but it did the job for me when I needed to validate urls so thought it might be useful to others who come across this post looking for the same thing

What is the best regular expression to check if a string is a valid URL?