How to check if a given value is a valid URL

Question

I need some function to check is the given value is a url.

I have code:

<?php $string = get_from_db(); list($name, $url) = explode(": ", $string); if (is_url($url)) { $link = array('name' => $name, 'link' => $url); } else { $text = $string; } // Make some things ?>

See if this works for you: stackoverflow.com/questions/2390275/… — MacAnthony
– MacAnthony, Commented Jun 21, 2010 at 13:52
Not a dupe - those two are asking for a regex, whereas this one is not. — nickf
– nickf, Commented Jun 21, 2010 at 14:05

BoltClock · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-21 14:03:21Z

If you're running PHP 5 (and you should be!), just use filter_var():

function is_url($url) { return filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) !== false; }

Addendum: as the PHP manual entry for parse_url() (and @Liutas in his comment) points out:

This function is not meant to validate the given URL, it only breaks it up into the above listed parts. Partial URLs are also accepted, parse_url() tries its best to parse them correctly.

For example, parse_url() considers a query string as part of a URL. However, a query string is not entirely a URL. The following line of code:

var_dump(parse_url('foo=bar&baz=what'));

Outputs this:

array(1) { ["path"]=> string(16) "foo=bar&baz=what" }

You can also specify some options (path or query required): php.net/manual/en/filter.filters.validate.php
Definitely the best solution. My current project contains a really long regex to check for valid URLs, and tomorrow it's going to be replaced with this. Thanks!

Pentium10 · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-21 13:52:14Z

3

use parse_url and check for false

<?php $url = 'http://username:password@hostname/path?arg=value#anchor'; print_r(parse_url($url)); echo parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PATH); ?>

The above example will output:

Array ( [scheme] => http [host] => hostname [user] => username [pass] => password [path] => /path [query] => arg=value [fragment] => anchor ) /path

answered Jun 21, 2010 at 13:52

Pentium10

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3 Comments

Liutas Over a year ago

but in manula it sai: "This function is not meant to validate the given URL, it only breaks it up into the above listed parts. Partial URLs are also accepted, parse_url() tries its best to parse them correctly. "

Pentium10 Over a year ago

Beyond this the best way to validate an URL is to make a HTTP request and see if the response is valid.

Liutas Over a year ago

I cant do this because this can be sensitive url

user253984 · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-21 13:52:26Z

0

You can check if ParseUrl returns false.

answered Jun 21, 2010 at 13:52

user253984

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