In this exercise, we will understand how to validate URLs in PHP with regex. Additionally, you can execute in Laravel or PHP.
It is very difficult to understand the URL is valid or NOT, when user submits the URL.
So in this exercise, I will explain u the efficient and easy way to handle and validate the URL by using Laravel and PHP with Regex.
Below I have explain the different option to validate the URL.
1. Using filter_var() inbuilt function with
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL filter.
2. Using preg_match() Regex.
filter_var() with the FILTER_VALIDATE_URL filter
filter_var(variable, filtername, options)
Now let’s see the first way to validate the URL using filter_var() with the FILTER_VALIDATE_URL filter , it is the efficient way to validate the URL.
So I will assign the “//www.codesolutionstuff.com” string to $url variable and try to find the the given URL is valid or not by using filter_var() with the
FILTER_VALIDATE_URL filter. Please check the following example for more details.
Filter_var() take three parameters as shown in syntax.
1. Variable
2. Filtername
3. Options
In filter_var() first variable parameter is compulsory and other two parameters are optional.
You can also check the following possible flags while validating URL in PHP
FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED – URL must include hostname (like //www.codesolutionstuff.com)
FILTER_FLAG_PATH_REQUIRED – URL must have a path after the domain name (like www.codesolutionstuff.com/home
Using preg_match() Regex
Let’s check the other way to validate the URL. Using preg_match() Regex we can find out the given string follows the pattern or not, if the pattern is correct then it will return TRUE otherwise FALSE. Please check the following example for more details.
<?php $regex = "((https?|ftp)\:\/\/)?"; $regex .= "([a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+(\:[a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+)[email protected])?"; $regex .= "([a-z0-9-.]*)\.([a-z]{2,3})"; $regex .= "(\:[0-9]{2,5})?"; $regex .= "(\/([a-z0-9+\$_-]\.?)+)*\/?"; $regex .= "(\?[a-z+&\$_.-][a-z0-9;:@&%=+\/\$_.-]*)?"; $regex .= "(#[a-z_.-][a-z0-9+\$_.-]*)?"; $url = '//www.codesolutionstuff.com/'; if (preg_match("/^$regex$/i", $url)) { echo('Enter URL is a valid URL'); } ?>I hope you will like the content and it will help you to learn How To Validate URL in PHP with Regex
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To clarify, I’m looking for a decent regular expression to validate URLs that were entered as user input with. I have no interest in parsing a list of URLs from a given string of text (even though some of the regexes on this page are capable of doing that). I also don’t want to allow every possible technically valid URL — quite the opposite. See the URL Standard if you’re looking to parse URLs in the same way that browsers do.
Assume that this regex will be used for a public URL shortener written in PHP, so URLs like //localhost/, //foo.bar/, ://foo.bar/, data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,OHAI and tel:+1234567890 shouldn’t pass (even though they’re technically valid). Also, in this case I only want to allow the HTTP, HTTPS and FTP protocols.
Also, single weird leading and/or trailing characters aren’t tested for. Just imagine you’re doing this before testing $url with the regex:
Note that I’ve added the S modifier to all the regexes to speed up the tests. In real-world usage, this modifier can be omitted.
Here’s a plain text list of all the URLs used in the test.
Diego Perini posted his version as a gist.
These URLs should match (1 → correct) | ||||||||||||
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
These URLs should fail (0 → correct) | ||||||||||||
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Spoon Library (979 chars)
/(((http|ftp|https):\/{2})+(([0-9a-z_-]+\.)+(aero|asia|biz|cat|com|coop|edu|gov|info|int|jobs|mil|mobi|museum|name|net|org|pro|tel|travel|ac|ad|ae|af|ag|ai|al|am|an|ao|aq|ar|as|at|au|aw|ax|az|ba|bb|bd|be|bf|bg|bh|bi|bj|bm|bn|bo|br|bs|bt|bv|bw|by|bz|ca|cc|cd|cf|cg|ch|ci|ck|cl|cm|cn|co|cr|cu|cv|cx|cy|cz|cz|de|dj|dk|dm|do|dz|ec|ee|eg|er|es|et|eu|fi|fj|fk|fm|fo|fr|ga|gb|gd|ge|gf|gg|gh|gi|gl|gm|gn|gp|gq|gr|gs|gt|gu|gw|gy|hk|hm|hn|hr|ht|hu|id|ie|il|im|in|io|iq|ir|is|it|je|jm|jo|jp|ke|kg|kh|ki|km|kn|kp|kr|kw|ky|kz|la|lb|lc|li|lk|lr|ls|lt|lu|lv|ly|ma|mc|md|me|mg|mh|mk|ml|mn|mn|mo|mp|mr|ms|mt|mu|mv|mw|mx|my|mz|na|nc|ne|nf|ng|ni|nl|no|np|nr|nu|nz|nom|pa|pe|pf|pg|ph|pk|pl|pm|pn|pr|ps|pt|pw|py|qa|re|ra|rs|ru|rw|sa|sb|sc|sd|se|sg|sh|si|sj|sj|sk|sl|sm|sn|so|sr|st|su|sv|sy|sz|tc|td|tf|tg|th|tj|tk|tl|tm|tn|to|tp|tr|tt|tv|tw|tz|ua|ug|uk|us|uy|uz|va|vc|ve|vg|vi|vn|vu|wf|ws|ye|yt|yu|za|zm|zw|arpa)(:[0-9]+)?((\/([~0-9a-zA-Z\#\+\%@\.\/_-]+))?(\?[0-9a-zA-Z\+\%@\/&\[\];=_-]+)?)?))\b/imuS@krijnhoetmer (115 chars)
_(^|[\s.:;?\-\]<\(])(https?://[-\w;/?:@&=+$\|\_.!~*\|'()\[\]%#,☺]+[\w/#](\(\))?)(?=$|[\s',\|\(\).:;?\-\[\]>\)])_i@gruber (71 chars)
#\b(([\w-]+://?|www[.])[^\s()<>]+(?:\([\w\d]+\)|([^[:punct:]\s]|/)))#iS@gruber v2 (218 chars)
#(?i)\b((?:[a-z][\w-]+:(?:/{1,3}|[a-z0-9%])|www\d{0,3}[.]|[a-z0-9.\-]+[.][a-z]{2,4}/)(?:[^\s()<>]+|\(([^\s()<>]+|(\([^\s()<>]+\)))*\))+(?:\(([^\s()<>]+|(\([^\s()<>]+\)))*\)|[^\s`!()\[\]{};:'".,<>?«»“”‘’]))#iS@cowboy (1241 chars)
~(?:\b[a-z\d.-]+://[^<>\s]+|\b(?:(?:(?:[^\s!@#$%^&*()_=+[\]{}\|;:'",.<>/?]+)\.)+(?:ac|ad|aero|ae|af|ag|ai|al|am|an|ao|aq|arpa|ar|asia|as|at|au|aw|ax|az|ba|bb|bd|be|bf|bg|bh|biz|bi|bj|bm|bn|bo|br|bs|bt|bv|bw|by|bz|cat|ca|cc|cd|cf|cg|ch|ci|ck|cl|cm|cn|coop|com|co|cr|cu|cv|cx|cy|cz|de|dj|dk|dm|do|dz|ec|edu|ee|eg|er|es|et|eu|fi|fj|fk|fm|fo|fr|ga|gb|gd|ge|gf|gg|gh|gi|gl|gm|gn|gov|gp|gq|gr|gs|gt|gu|gw|gy|hk|hm|hn|hr|ht|hu|id|ie|il|im|info|int|in|io|iq|ir|is|it|je|jm|jobs|jo|jp|ke|kg|kh|ki|km|kn|kp|kr|kw|ky|kz|la|lb|lc|li|lk|lr|ls|lt|lu|lv|ly|ma|mc|md|me|mg|mh|mil|mk|ml|mm|mn|mobi|mo|mp|mq|mr|ms|mt|museum|mu|mv|mw|mx|my|mz|name|na|nc|net|ne|nf|ng|ni|nl|no|np|nr|nu|nz|om|org|pa|pe|pf|pg|ph|pk|pl|pm|pn|pro|pr|ps|pt|pw|py|qa|re|ro|rs|ru|rw|sa|sb|sc|sd|se|sg|sh|si|sj|sk|sl|sm|sn|so|sr|st|su|sv|sy|sz|tc|td|tel|tf|tg|th|tj|tk|tl|tm|tn|to|tp|travel|tr|tt|tv|tw|tz|ua|ug|uk|um|us|uy|uz|va|vc|ve|vg|vi|vn|vu|wf|ws|xn--0zwm56d|xn--11b5bs3a9aj6g|xn--80akhbyknj4f|xn--9t4b11yi5a|xn--deba0ad|xn--g6w251d|xn--hgbk6aj7f53bba|xn--hlcj6aya9esc7a|xn--jxalpdlp|xn--kgbechtv|xn--zckzah|ye|yt|yu|za|zm|zw)|(?:(?:[0-9]|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.){3}(?:[0-9]|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5]))(?:[;/][^#?<>\s]*)?(?:\?[^#<>\s]*)?(?:#[^<>\s]*)?(?!\w))~iSJeffrey Friedl (241 chars)
@\b((ftp|https?)://[-\w]+(\.\w[-\w]*)+|(?:[a-z0-9](?:[-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+(?: com\b|edu\b|biz\b|gov\b|in(?:t|fo)\b|mil\b|net\b|org\b|[a-z][a-z]\b))(\:\d+)?(/[^.!,?;"'<>()\[\]{}\s\x7F-\xFF]*(?:[.!,?]+[^.!,?;"'<>()\[\]{}\s\x7F-\xFF]+)*)?@iS@mattfarina (287 chars)
/^([a-z][a-z0-9\*\-\.]*):\/\/(?:(?:(?:[\w\.\-\+!$&'\(\)*\+,;=]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+:)*(?:[\w\.\-\+%!$&'\(\)*\+,;=]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+@)?(?:(?:[a-z0-9\-\.]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+|(?:\[(?:[0-9a-f]{0,4}:)*(?:[0-9a-f]{0,4})\]))(?::[0-9]+)?(?:[\/|\?](?:[\w#!:\.\?\+=&@!$'~*,;\/\(\)\[\]\-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?$/xiS@stephenhay (38 chars)
@^(https?|ftp)://[^\s/$.?#].[^\s]*$@iS@scottgonzales (1347 chars)
#([a-z]([a-z]|\d|\+|-|\.)*):(\/\/(((([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:)*@)?((\[(|(v[\da-f]{1,}\.(([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~)|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:)+))\])|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])\.(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5]))|(([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(:\d*)?)(\/(([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)*)*|(\/((([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)+(\/(([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)*)*)?)|((([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)+(\/(([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)*)*)|((([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)){0})(\?((([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)|[\xE000-\xF8FF]|\/|\?)*)?(\#((([a-z]|\d|-|\.|_|~|[\x00A0-\xD7FF\xF900-\xFDCF\xFDF0-\xFFEF])|(%[\da-f]{2})|[!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=]|:|@)|\/|\?)*)?#iS@rodneyrehm (109 chars)
#((https?://|ftp://|www\.|[^\s:=]+@www\.).*?[a-z_\/0-9\-\#=&])(?=(\.|,|;|\?|\!)?("|'|«|»|\[|\s|\r|\n|$))#iS@imme_emosol (54 chars)
@(https?|ftp)://(-\.)?([^\s/?\.#-]+\.?)+(/[^\s]*)?$@iS@diegoperini (443 chars)
%^(?:(?:(?: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-z0-9\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}][a-z0-9\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}_-]{0,62})?[a-z0-9\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]\.)+(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,}\.?))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:[/?#]\S*)?$%iuS— Mathias