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

vitorsilva_1842864 0
Viewed 612391

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.

language-agnostic url regex
61 Answers

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);
eyelidlessness_179640

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:)

Duncan_Smart_12780

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

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

Keng_7300

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!

Admin1

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.

Blair_Conrad_11990

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.

Hank_Gay_42030 
^(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

user_24607600

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
user_59074120

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 ;-)

user_158090

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.

user_56476590

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

user_22094680 
https?:\/{2}(?:[\/-\w.]|(?:%[\da-fA-F]{2}))+

You can use this pattern for detecting URLs.

Following is the proof of concept

RegExr: URL Detector

user_95184070
user_43178310

Below expression will work for all popular domains. It will accept following urls:

In addition it will make message with url as link also
e.g. please visit yourwebsite.com
In above example it will make yourwebsite.com as hyperlink

if (new RegExp("([-a-z0-9]{1,63}\\.)*?[a-z0-9][-a-z0-9]{0,61}[a-z0-9]\\.(com|com/|org|gov|cm|net|online|live|biz|us|uk|co.us|co.uk|in|co.in|int|info|edu|mil|ca|co|co.au|org/|gov/|cm/|net/|online/|live/|biz/|us/|uk/|co.us/|co.uk/|in/|co.in/|int/|info/|edu/|mil/|ca/|co/|co.au/)(/[-\\w@\\+\\.~#\\?*&/=% ]*)?$").test(strMessage) || (new RegExp("^[a-z ]+[\.]?[a-z ]+?[\.]+[a-z ]+?[\.]+[a-z ]+?[-\\w@\\+\\.~#\\?*&/=% ]*").test(strMessage) && new RegExp("([a-zA-Z0-9]+://)?([a-zA-Z0-9_]+:[a-zA-Z0-9_]+@)?([a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\\.[A-Za-z]{2,4})(:[0-9]+)?(/.*)?").test(strMessage)) || (new RegExp("^[a-z ]+[\.]?[a-z ]+?[-\\w@\\+\\.~#\\?*&/=% ]*").test(strMessage) && new RegExp("([a-zA-Z0-9]+://)?([a-zA-Z0-9_]+:[a-zA-Z0-9_]+@)?([a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\\.[A-Za-z]{2,4})(:[0-9]+)?(/.*)?").test(strMessage))) {
  if (new RegExp("^[a-z ]+[\.]?[a-z ]+?[\.]+[a-z ]+?[\.]+[a-z ]+?$").test(strMessage) && new RegExp("([a-zA-Z0-9]+://)?([a-zA-Z0-9_]+:[a-zA-Z0-9_]+@)?([a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\\.[A-Za-z]{2,4})(:[0-9]+)?(/.*)?").test(strMessage)) {
    var url1 = /(^|&lt;|\s)([\w\.]+\.(?:com|org|gov|cm|net|online|live|biz|us|uk|co.us|co.uk|in|co.in|int|info|edu|mil|ca|co|co.au))(\s|&gt;|$)/g;
    var html = $.trim(strMessage);
    if (html) {
      html = html.replace(url1, '$1<a style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank"  href="http://$2">$2</a>$3');
    }
    returnString = html;
    return returnString;
  } else {
    var url1 = /(^|&lt;|\s)(www\..+?\.(?:com|org|gov|cm|net|online|live|biz|us|uk|co.us|co.uk|in|co.in|int|info|edu|mil|ca|co|co.au)[^,\s]*)(\s|&gt;|$)/g,
      url2 = /(^|&lt;|\s)(((https?|ftp):\/\/|mailto:).+?\.(?:com|org|gov|cm|net|online|live|biz|us|uk|co.us|co.uk|in|co.in|int|info|edu|mil|ca|co|co.au)[^,\s]*)(\s|&gt;|$)/g,
      url3 = /(^|&lt;|\s)([\w\.]+\.(?:com|org|gov|cm|net|online|live|biz|us|uk|co.us|co.uk|in|co.in|int|info|edu|mil|ca|co|co.au)[^,\s]*)(\s|&gt;|$)/g;

    var html = $.trim(strMessage);
    if (html) {
      html = html.replace(url1, '$1<a style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank"  href="http://$2">$2</a>$3').replace(url2, '$1<a style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank"  href="$2">$2</a>$5').replace(url3, '$1<a style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank"  href="http://$2">$2</a>$3');
    }
    returnString = html;

    return returnString;
  }
}
user_40179960

The best regex, i've found is: /(^|\s)((https?:\/\/)?[\w-]+(\.[\w-]+)+\.?(:\d+)?(\/\S*)?)/gi

For ios swift : (^|\\s)((https?:\\/\\/)?[\\w-]+(\\.[\\w-]+)+\\.?(:\\d+)?(\\/\\S*)?)

http://jsfiddle.net/9BYdp/1/

Found here

user_57904920

Interestingly, none of the answers above worked for what I needed, so I figured I would offer my solution. I needed to be able to do the following:

  • Match http(s)://www.google.com, http://google.com, www.google.com, and google.com
  • Match Github markdown style links like [Google](http://www.google.com)
  • Match all possible domain extensions, like .com, or .io, or .guru, etc. Basically anything between 2-6 characters in length
  • Split everything into proper groupings so that I could access each part as needed.

Here was the solution:

/^(\[[A-z0-9 _]*\]\()?((?:(http|https):\/\/)?(?:[\w-]+\.)+[a-z]{2,6})(\))?$

This gives me all of the above requirements. You could optionally add the ability for ftp and file if necessary:

/^(\[[A-z0-9 _]*\]\()?((?:(http|https|ftp|file):\/\/)?(?:[\w-]+\.)+[a-z]{2,6})(\))?$
user_44691760

I think it is a very simple way. And it works very good.

var hasURL = (str) =>{
 var url_pattern = new RegExp("(www.|http://|https://|ftp://)\w*");
 if(!url_pattern.test(str)){
  document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = 'No URL';
 }
 else
  document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = 'String has a URL';
};
<p>Please enter a string and test it has any url or not</p>
<input type="text" id="url" placeholder="url" onkeyup="hasURL(document.getElementById('url').value)">
<p id="demo"></p>

user_65706910

If you would like to apply a more strict rule, here is what I have developed:

isValidUrl(input) {
    var regex = /^(((H|h)(T|t)(T|t)(P|p)(S|s)?):\/\/)?[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%._\+~#=]{2,100}\.[a-zA-Z]{2,10}(\/([-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]*))?/
    return regex.test(input)
}
user_11391300

Regardless the broad question asked, I post this for anyone in the future who is looking for something simple... as I think validating a URL has no perfect regular expression that fit all needs, it depends on your requirements, i.e: in my case, I just needed to verify if a URL is in the form of domain.extension and I wanted to allow the www or any other subdomain like blog.domain.extension I don't care about http(s) as in my app I have a field which says "enter the URL" so it's obvious what that entered string is.

so here is the regEx:

/^(www\.|[a-zA-Z0-9](.*[a-zA-Z0-9])?\.)?((?!www)[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9-]+[a-zA-Z0-9])\.[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?$/i

The first block in this regExp is:

(www\.|[a-zA-Z0-9](.*[a-zA-Z0-9])?\.)? ---> we start to check if the URL start with www. or [a-zA-Z0-9](.*[a-zA-Z0-9])? which means a letterOrNumber + (anyCharacter(0 or multiple times) + another letterOrNumber) followed with a dot

Note that the (.*[a-zA-Z0-9])?\.)? we translated by (anyCharacter(0 or multiple times) + another letterOrNumber) is optional (can be or not) that's why we grouped it between parentheses and followed with the question mark ?

the whole block we discussed so far is also put between parentheses and followed by ? which means both www or any other word (that represents a subdomain) is optional.

The second part is: ((?!www)[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9-]+[a-zA-Z0-9])\. ---> which represents the "domain" part, it can be any word (except www) starting with an alphabet or a number + any other alphabet (including dash "-") repeated one or more time, and ending with any alphabet or number followed with a dot.

The final part is [a-z]{2,} ---> which represent the "extension", it can be any alphabet repeated 2 or more times, so it can be com, net, org, art basically any extension

user_23921060

A simple check for URL is

^(ftp|http|https):\/\/[^ "]+$
user_36167310

Javascript now has a URL Constructor called new URL(). It allows you to skip REGEX completely.

/**
 * 
 * The URL() constructor returns a newly created URL object representing 
 * the URL defined by the parameters. 
 * 
 * https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/URL/URL
 * 
 */
let requestUrl = new URL('https://username:password@developer.mozilla.org:8080/en-US/docs/search.html?par1=abc&par2=123&par3=true#Recent');

let urlParts = {
  origin: requestUrl.origin,
  href: requestUrl.href,
  protocol: requestUrl.protocol,
  username: requestUrl.username,
  password: requestUrl.password,
  host: requestUrl.host,
  hostname: requestUrl.hostname,
  port: requestUrl.port,
  pathname: requestUrl.pathname,
  search: requestUrl.search,
  searchParams: {
    par1: String(requestUrl.searchParams.get('par1')),
    par2: Number(requestUrl.searchParams.get('par2')),
    par3: Boolean(requestUrl.searchParams.get('par3')),
  },
  hash: requestUrl.hash      
};

console.log(urlParts);

user_6871370

Thank you to @eyelidlessness for the extremely thorough (albeit long) RFC based regular expression.

For those of us using EICMAScript / JavaScript / Apps Script it doesn't work, however. Here is an otherwise exact replica of his answer that will work with these (along with a snippet to run for example - neat new feature!):

regEx_valid_URL = /^[a-z](?:[-a-z0-9\+\.])*:(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0-\uD7FF\uF900-\uFDCF\uFDF0-\uFFEF\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*@)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[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\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*)?|(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\uE000-\uF8FF}\uF0000-\uFFFFD\u100000-\u10FFFD\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\uA0}-\uD7FF}\uF900-\uFDCF}\uFDF0}-\uFFEF}\u10000-\u1FFFD\u20000-\u2FFFD\u30000-\u3FFFD\u40000-\u4FFFD\u50000-\u5FFFD\u60000-\u6FFFD\u70000-\u7FFFD\u80000-\u8FFFD\u90000-\u9FFFD\uA0000-\uAFFFD\uB0000-\uBFFFD\uC0000-\uCFFFD\uD0000-\uDFFFD\uE1000-\uEFFFD!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\/\?])*)?$/i;

checkedURL = RegExp(regEx_valid_URL).exec('gopher://example.somewhere.university/');

if (checkedURL != null) {
 console.log('The URL ' + checkedURL + ' is valid');
}

user_36085650

I use this: /((https?:\/\/|ftp:\/\/|www\.)\S+\.[^()\n ]+((?:\([^)]*\))|[^.,;:?!"'\n\)\]<* ])+)/

It's short, but it handles edge cases like certain Wikipedia links (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_(name)) that ends in a bracket, which the most voted answers here don't seem to cover.

user_20638800 

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

user_63605030
user_11619870

The following Regex works for me:

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

matches:

https://google.com t.me https://t.me ftp://google.com http://sm.tj http://bro.tj t.me/rshss https:google.com www.cool.com.au http://www.cool.com.au http://www.cool.com.au/ersdfs http://www.cool.com.au/ersdfs?dfd=dfgd@s=1 http://www.cool.com:81/index.html
user_62440010

The best regex is a combination of the best answers here! hahaha! I have just tested them all, and put the best together! I changed it a little to only have one capture group! I was able to find 637 URLs in the source code of this page! Only a few false positives!

((?:(?:https?|ftp)://)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@|\d{1,3}(?:\.\d{1,3}){3}|(?:(?:[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+-?)*[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+-?)*[a-z\d\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]+)*(?:\.[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,6}))(?::\d+)?(?:[^\s]*)|(?:(?:(?:[A-Za-z]{3,9}:(?:\/\/)?)(?:[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+@)?[A-Za-z0-9.-]+(?::[0-9]+)?|(?:www.|[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+@)[A-Za-z0-9.-]+)(?:(?:\/[\+~%\/.\w-_]*)?\??(?:[-\+=&;%@.\w_]*)#?(?:[\w]*))?)|(?:(?:(?:(?:[A-Za-z]{3,9}:(?:\/\/)?)(?:[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+@)?[A-Za-z0-9.-]+|(?:www.|[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+@)[A-Za-z0-9.-]+)(?:(?:\/[\+~%\/.\w-_]*)?\??(?:[-\+=&;%@.\w_]*)#?(?:[\w]*))?))|(?:(?:(?:[\\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})*)?)|(?: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\-#=&]*)|(?:(?:(?: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})*)?)|(?:(?:https?|ftp)://(?:www\d?|[a-zA-Z0-9]+)?\.[a-zA-Z0-9-]+(?:\:|\.)(?:[a-zA-Z0-9.]+|(?:\d+)?)(?:[/?:].*)?)|(?:\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))
user_150962470
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