PHP URL validation

Question

I know there are an infinite number of threads asking this question, but I have not been able to find one that can help me with this.

I am basically trying to parse a list of around 10,000,000 URLs, make sure they are valid per the following criteria and then get the root domain URL. This list contains just about everything you can imagine, including stuff like (and the expected formatted url):

biy.ly/test [VALID] [return - bit.ly]
example.com/apples?test=1&id=4 [VALID] [return - example.com]
host101.wow404.apples.test.com/cert/blah [VALID] [return - test.com]
101.121.44.xxx [**inVALID**] [return false]
localhost/noway [**inVALID**] [return false]
www.awesome.com [VALID] [return - awesome.com]
i am so awesome [**inVALID**] [return false]
http://404.mynewsite.com/visits/page/view/1/ [VALID] [return - mynewsite.com]
www1.151.com/searchresults [VALID] [return - 151.com]

Does any one have any suggestions for this?

You're not really validating anything with the criteria given. Do you also want to do a WHOIS lookup to see of the domain actually exists? — Brad
– Brad, Commented May 3, 2012 at 16:26
See [here][1] [1]: stackoverflow.com/questions/206059/php-validation-regex-for-url — yAnTar
– yAnTar, Commented May 3, 2012 at 16:27
What exactly are you going for? localhost is a valid URL. someverylongdomainnamethatprobablydoesntexist.com also is, but probably doesn't exist. — Dennis
– Dennis, Commented May 3, 2012 at 16:27
@yAnTar: Syntax for links in comments is [link text](URL). — Dennis
– Dennis, Commented May 3, 2012 at 16:28
"I have not been able to find one that can help me with this." - You have not looked hard enough. — Tomalak
– Tomalak, Commented May 3, 2012 at 16:48

Tomalak · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-03 16:44:47Z

15

^(?:https?://)?(?:[a-z0-9-]+\.)*((?:[a-z0-9-]+\.)[a-z]+)

Explanation

^                # start-of-line
(?:              # begin non-capturing group
  https?         #   "http" or "https"
  ://            #   "://"
)?               # end non-capturing group, make optional
(?:              # start non-capturing group
  [a-z0-9-]+\.   #   a name part (numbers, ASCII letters, dashes) & a dot
)*               # end non-capturing group, match as often as possible
(                # begin group 1 (this will be the domain name)
  (?:            #   start non-capturing group
    [a-z0-9-]+\. #     a name part, same as above
  )              #   end non-capturing group
  [a-z]+         #   the TLD
)                # end group 1

http://rubular.com/r/g6s9bQpNnC

edited May 3, 2012 at 16:44

answered May 3, 2012 at 16:38

Tomalak

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4 Comments

Rohit Chopra Over a year ago

Thank you for this. Love the explanation.

Dana the Sane Over a year ago

For readers, keep in mind that urls can have non-ascii characters. This regex won't match http://myurl.com/?utf8=✓ see (rubular.com/r/I4fvV3VHVT). Adding the utf8 parameter is a trick used for forcing utf8 encoding in older browsers, see (programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/168751/…)

Tomalak Over a year ago

@DanatheSane You are absolutely right. In fact, something more well thought-out like Daring Fireball: A Liberal, Accurate Regex Pattern for Matching URLs should be used.

Dana the Sane Over a year ago

Thanks for the link, comprehensive solutions to this problem seem hard to come by.

dqhendricks · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-03 17:35:40Z

2

I would start with the default:

filter_var($inputUrl, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL);

Then add your special cases of things that are not acceptable for further validation. This should simplify a bit.

As for getting the host.

parse_url($inputUrl, PHP_URL_HOST);

answered May 3, 2012 at 17:35

dqhendricks

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2 Comments

dqhendricks Over a year ago

@RohitChopra that is absolutely not true. FILTER_VALIDATE_URL validates based on the RFC 2396 specifications for valid URLS. faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2396.html

dqhendricks Over a year ago

There are also two optional flags you can use with this validator, FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED and FILTER_FLAG_QUERY_REQUIRED.

JNF · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-03 16:28:48Z

0

^(([a-zA-Z](\.[a-zA-Z])+)|([0-9]{1,3}(\.[0-9]{1,3}){3})/.*$

edit

In php that would be preg_match ( '^(([a-zA-Z](\.[a-zA-Z])+)|([0-9]{1,3}(\.[0-9]{1,3}){3})/.*$' , $myUrls , $matches)

What you need would be in $matches[1]

answered May 3, 2012 at 16:28

JNF

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1 Comment

galymzhan Over a year ago

Domain names may contain other characters than just latin symbols. This regexp fails even with www1.151.com mentioned in the question

Swadesh · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-16 12:45:17Z

0

$website = test_input($_POST["website"]);
if (!preg_match("/\b(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/|www\.)[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|]/i",$w$website = test_input($_POST["website"]);
if (!preg_match("/\b(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/|www\.)[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|]/i",$website))
  {
  $websiteErr = "Invalid URL";
  }ebsite))
  {
  $websiteErr = "Invalid URL";
  }

answered Oct 16, 2013 at 12:45

Swadesh

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