Extracting a URL in Python

Question

In regards to: Find Hyperlinks in Text using Python (twitter related)

How can I extract just the url so I can put it into a list/array?

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Edit

Let me clarify, I don't want to parse the URL into pieces. I want to extract the URL from the text of the string to put it into an array. Thanks!

Answer 1

In response to the OP's edit I hijacked Find Hyperlinks in Text using Python (twitter related) and came up with this:

import re  myString = "This is my tweet check it out http://example.com/blah"  print(re.search("(?P<url>https?://[^\s]+)", myString).group("url")) 

Answer 2

Misunderstood question:

>>> from urllib.parse import urlparse
>>> urlparse('http://www.ggogle.com/test?t')
ParseResult(scheme='http', netloc='www.ggogle.com', path='/test',
        params='', query='t', fragment='')

or py2.* version:

>>> from urlparse import urlparse
>>> urlparse('http://www.cwi.nl:80/%7Eguido/Python.html')
ParseResult(scheme='http', netloc='www.cwi.nl:80', path='/%7Eguido/Python.html',
        params='', query='', fragment='')

ETA: regex are indeed are the best option here:

>>> s = 'This is my tweet check it out http://tinyurl.com/blah and http://blabla.com'
>>> re.findall(r'(https?://\S+)', s)
['http://tinyurl.com/blah', 'http://blabla.com']

Answer 3

You can use the following monstrous regex:

\b((?:https?://)?(?:(?:www\.)?(?:[\da-z\.-]+)\.(?:[a-z]{2,6})|(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)|(?:(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])))(?::[0-9]{1,4}|[1-5][0-9]{4}|6[0-4][0-9]{3}|65[0-4][0-9]{2}|655[0-2][0-9]|6553[0-5])?(?:/[\w\.-]*)*/?)\b

Demo regex101

This regex will accept urls in the following format:

INPUT:

add1 http://mit.edu.com abc
add2 https://facebook.jp.com.2. abc
add3 www.google.be. uvw
add4 https://www.google.be. 123
add5 www.website.gov.us test2
Hey bob on www.test.com. 
another test with ipv4 http://192.168.1.1/test.jpg. toto2
website with different port number www.test.com:8080/test.jpg not port 80
www.website.gov.us/login.html
test with ipv4 192.168.1.1/test.jpg.
search at google.co.jp/maps.
test with ipv6 2001:0db8:0000:85a3:0000:0000:ac1f:8001/test.jpg.

OUTPUT:

http://mit.edu.com
https://facebook.jp.com
www.google.be
https://www.google.be
www.website.gov.us
www.test.com
http://192.168.1.1/test.jpg
www.test.com:8080/test.jpg
www.website.gov.us/login.html
192.168.1.1/test.jpg
google.co.jp/maps
2001:0db8:0000:85a3:0000:0000:ac1f:8001/test.jpg

Explanations:

• \b is used for word boundary to delimit the URL and the rest of the text
• (?:https?://)? to match http:// or https// if present
• (?:(?:www\.)?(?:[\da-z\.-]+)\.(?:[a-z]{2,6}) to match standard url (that might start with www. (lets call it STANDARD_URL)
• (?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?) to match standard Ipv4 (lets call it IPv4)
• to match the IPv6 URLs: (?:(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])) (lets call it IPv6)
• to match the port part (lets call it PORT) if present: (?::[0-9]{1,4}|[1-5][0-9]{4}|6[0-4][0-9]{3}|65[0-4][0-9]{2}|655[0-2][0-9]|6553[0-5])
• to match the (?:/[\w\.-]*)*/?) target object part of the url (html file, jpg,...) (lets call it RESSOURCE_PATH)

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This gives the following regex:

\b((?:https?://)?(?:STANDARD_URL|IPv4|IPv6)(?:PORT)?(?:RESSOURCE_PATH)\b

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Sources:

IPv6: Regular expression that matches valid IPv6 addresses

IPv4: https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/regular-expressions-cookbook/9780596802837/ch07s16.html

PORT: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12968117/8794221

Other sources: https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/8-regular-expressions-you-should-know--net-6149

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$ more url.py

import re

inputString = """add1 http://mit.edu.com abc
add2 https://facebook.jp.com.2. abc
add3 www.google.be. uvw
add4 https://www.google.be. 123
add5 www.website.gov.us test2
Hey bob on www.test.com. 
another test with ipv4 http://192.168.1.1/test.jpg. toto2
website with different port number www.test.com:8080/test.jpg not port 80
www.website.gov.us/login.html
test with ipv4 (192.168.1.1/test.jpg).
search at google.co.jp/maps.
test with ipv6 2001:0db8:0000:85a3:0000:0000:ac1f:8001/test.jpg."""

regex=ur"\b((?:https?://)?(?:(?:www\.)?(?:[\da-z\.-]+)\.(?:[a-z]{2,6})|(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)|(?:(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){7,7}[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,7}:|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,5}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,2}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,3}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,3}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,4}|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,2}(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,5}|[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:(?:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,6})|:(?:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}){1,7}|:)|fe80:(?::[0-9a-fA-F]{0,4}){0,4}%[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,}|::(?:ffff(?::0{1,4}){0,1}:){0,1}(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])|(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,4}:(?:(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])\.){3,3}(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1{0,1}[0-9]){0,1}[0-9])))(?::[0-9]{1,4}|[1-5][0-9]{4}|6[0-4][0-9]{3}|65[0-4][0-9]{2}|655[0-2][0-9]|6553[0-5])?(?:/[\w\.-]*)*/?)\b"

matches = re.findall(regex, inputString)
print(matches)

OUTPUT:

$ python url.py 
['http://mit.edu.com', 'https://facebook.jp.com', 'www.google.be', 'https://www.google.be', 'www.website.gov.us', 'www.test.com', 'http://192.168.1.1/test.jpg', 'www.test.com:8080/test.jpg', 'www.website.gov.us/login.html', '192.168.1.1/test.jpg', 'google.co.jp/maps', '2001:0db8:0000:85a3:0000:0000:ac1f:8001/test.jpg']