What Is the Rfc Compliant and Working Regular Expression to Check If a String Is a Valid Url

What is the RFC compliant and working regular expression to check if a string is a valid URL

After reading RFC 3986, I have to say I was wrong. That regexp is fully working (that I know).
First mistake I had was syntax of IPv6 addresesses, they are put around [], and second was about example.org: (note trailing double dot :). But as the RFC says scheme can have dots in it, so it's also valid.

So that's valid RFC way to do it, but people will usually (as I will) need to modify it to only accept some schemas.

Regular expression for W3C compliant URLs?

Right I think I have the answer. I found another StackOverflow question that contained what seems to be a very good RegEx for RFC 3987. I can't be sure because I haven't gone through the spec in detail or anything, but I think it's compliant.

I had to refactor it a bit to work in JavaScript - I removed the curly braces from the character declarations and replaced \x with \u but now I'm pretty sure it works. I also added \s* to the beginning and end to comply with that part of the W3C specification.

Here's the final regex. If anyone tries it and has any problems, or thinks it should be different in any way let me know - I'm going for the most accurate solution possible here:

/^\s*[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}:[0-9a-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!\$&\'\(\)\*\+,;=:@])|[\/\?])*)?\s*$/i

Regular expression to match URLs in Java

Try the following regex string instead. Your test was probably done in a case-sensitive manner. I have added the lowercase alphas as well as a proper string beginning placeholder.

String regex = "^(https?|ftp|file)://[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]";

This works too:

String regex = "\\b(https?|ftp|file)://[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]";

Note:

String regex = "<\\b(https?|ftp|file)://[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]>"; // matches <http://google.com>

String regex = "<^(https?|ftp|file)://[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-a-zA-Z0-9+&@#/%=~_|]>"; // does not match <http://google.com>

How to match URLs in Ruby 1.8.7 using Regex

You could try the below regex to match the URL's which satisfy the above criteria.

(?:https?:\/\/)?[^\W\s_]+\.?[^\W\s_]+\.(?:com|org|me)(?:\/[^\W\s_]+)?

DEMO

check if a string is a URL

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php#93824

<?php 
    $regex = "((https?|ftp)\:\/\/)?"; // SCHEME 
    $regex .= "([a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+(\:[a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+)?@)?"; // User and Pass 
    $regex .= "([a-z0-9-.]*)\.([a-z]{2,3})"; // Host or IP 
    $regex .= "(\:[0-9]{2,5})?"; // Port 
    $regex .= "(\/([a-z0-9+\$_-]\.?)+)*\/?"; // Path 
    $regex .= "(\?[a-z+&\$_.-][a-z0-9;:@&%=+\/\$_.-]*)?"; // GET Query 
    $regex .= "(#[a-z_.-][a-z0-9+\$_.-]*)?"; // Anchor 

       if(preg_match("/^$regex$/i", $url)) // `i` flag for case-insensitive
       { 
               return true; 
       } 
?>

but your example URL is over simplified, (\w+)\.(\w+) would match it. somebody else mentioned filter_var which is simply a filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) but it doesn't seem to like non-ascii characters so, beware...

Best way to check if a URL is valid

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');
}

What would be a globally accepted regular expression to match e-mail addresses

This regular expression complies with the grammar described in RFC 2822, it's very long, but the grammar described in the RFC is complex...

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