How to get HTTP response code for a URL in Java?

Try this piece of code which is checking the 400 error messages

huc = (HttpURLConnection)(new URL(url).openConnection());

huc.setRequestMethod("HEAD");

huc.connect();

respCode = huc.getResponseCode();

if(respCode >= 400) {
    System.out.println(url+" is a broken link");
} else {
    System.out.println(url+" is a valid link");
}

This is the full static method, which you can adapt to set waiting time and error code when IOException happens:

  public static int getResponseCode(String address) {
    return getResponseCode(address, 404);
  }

  public static int getResponseCode(String address, int defaultValue) {
    try {
      //Logger.getLogger(WebOperations.class.getName()).info("Fetching response code at " + address);
      URL url = new URL(address);
      HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
      connection.setConnectTimeout(1000 * 5); //wait 5 seconds the most
      connection.setReadTimeout(1000 * 5);
      connection.setRequestProperty("User-Agent", "Your Robot Name");
      int responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();
      connection.disconnect();
      return responseCode;
    } catch (IOException ex) {
      Logger.getLogger(WebOperations.class.getName()).log(Level.INFO, "Exception at {0} {1}", new Object[]{address, ex.toString()});
      return defaultValue;
    }
  }

Its a old question, but lets to show in the REST way (JAX-RS):

import java.util.Arrays;
import javax.ws.rs.*

(...)

Response response = client
    .target( url )
    .request()
    .get();

// Looking if response is "200", "201" or "202", for example:
if( Arrays.asList( Status.OK, Status.CREATED, Status.ACCEPTED ).contains( response.getStatusInfo() ) ) {
    // lets something...
}

(...)