Best way to check if a URL is valid

user_241654 0
Viewed 268476

I want to use PHP to check, if string stored in $myoutput variable contains a valid link syntax or is it just a normal text. The function or solution, that I'm looking for, should recognize all links formats including the ones with GET parameters.

A solution, suggested on many sites, to actually query string (using CURL or file_get_contents() function) is not possible in my case and I would like to avoid it.

I thought about regular expressions or another solution.

php
12 Answers

You can use a native Filter Validator

filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL);

Validates value as URL (according to » http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2396), optionally with required components. Beware a valid URL may not specify the HTTP protocol http:// so further validation may be required to determine the URL uses an expected protocol, e.g. ssh:// or mailto:. Note that the function will only find ASCII URLs to be valid; internationalized domain names (containing non-ASCII characters) will fail.

Example:

if (filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) === FALSE) {
    die('Not a valid URL');
}
user_2088090

Actually... filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL); doesn't work very well. When you type in a real url, it works but, it only checks for http:// so if you type something like "http://weirtgcyaurbatc", it will still say it's real.

user_123108550

Came across this article from 2012. It takes into account variables that may or may not be just plain URLs.

The author of the article, David Müeller, provides this function that he says, "...could be worth wile [sic]," along with some examples of filter_var and its shortcomings.

/**
 * Modified version of `filter_var`.
 *
 * @param  mixed $url Could be a URL or possibly much more.
 * @return bool
 */
function validate_url( $url ) {
    $url = trim( $url );

    return (
        ( strpos( $url, 'http://' ) === 0 || strpos( $url, 'https://' ) === 0 ) &&
        filter_var(
            $url,
            FILTER_VALIDATE_URL,
            FILTER_FLAG_SCHEME_REQUIRED || FILTER_FLAG_HOST_REQUIRED
        ) !== false
    );
}
user_11550680 
public function testing($Url=''){
    $ch = curl_init($Url);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 5);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    $data = curl_exec($ch);
    $httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    curl_close($ch);
    return ($httpcode >= 200 && $httpcode < 300) ? true : false;
}
user_142816450

if anyone is interested to use the cURL for validation. You can use the following code.

<?php 
public function validationUrl($Url){
        if ($Url == NULL){
            return $false;
        }
        $ch = curl_init($Url);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 5);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 5);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        $data = curl_exec($ch);
        $httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
        curl_close($ch);
        return ($httpcode >= 200 && $httpcode < 300) ? true : false; 
    }
user_48065850
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