Regex to match URL

Question

I am using the following regex to match a URL:

$search  = "/([\S]+\.(MUSEUM|TRAVEL|AERO|ARPA|ASIA|COOP|INFO|NAME|BIZ|CAT|COM|INT|JOBS|NET|ORG|PRO|TEL|AC|AD|AE|AF|AG|AI|AL|AM|AN|AO|AQ|AR|AS|AT|AU|au|AW|AX|AZ|BA|BB|BD|BE|BF|BG|BH|BI|BJ|BL|BM|BN|BO|BR|BS|BT|BV|BW|BY|BZ|CA|CC|CD|CF|CG|CH|CI|CK|CL|CM|CN|CO|CR|CU|CV|CX|CY|CZ|DE|DJ|DK|DM|DO|DZ|EC|EDU|EE|EG|EH|ER|ES|ET|EU|FI|FJ|FK|FM|FO|FR|GA|GB|GD|GE|GF|GG|GH|GI|GL|GM|GN|GOV|GP|GQ|GR|GS|GT|GU|GW|GY|HK|HM|HN|HR|HT|HU|ID|IE|IL|IM|IN|IO|IQ|IR|IS|IT|JE|JM|JO|JP|KE|KG|KH|KI|KM|KN|KP|KR|KW|KY|KZ|LA|LB|LC|LI|LK|LR|LS|LT|LU|LV|LY|MA|MC|MD|ME|MF|MG|MH|MIL|MK|ML|MM|MN|MO|MOBI|MP|MQ|MR|MS|MT|MU|MV|MW|MX|MY|MZ|NA|NC|NE|NF|NG|NI|NL|NO|NP|NR|NU|NZ|OM|PA|PE|PF|PG|PH|PK|PL|PM|PN|PR|PS|PT|PW|PY|QA|RE|RO|RS|RU|RW|SA|SB|SC|SD|SE|SG|SH|SI|SJ|SK|SL|SM|SN|SO|SR|ST|SU|SV|SY|SZ|TC|TD|TF|TG|TH|TJ|TK|TL|TM|TN|TO|R|H|TP|TR|TT|TV|TW|TZ|UA|UG|UK|UM|US|UY|UZ|VA|VC|VE|VG|VI|VN|VU|WF|WS|YE|YT|YU|ZA|ZM|ZW)([\S]*))/i";

But its a bit screwed up because it also matches "abc.php" which I dont want. and something like abc...test. I want it to match abc.com though. and www.abc.com as well as http://abc.com.

It just needs a slight tweak at the end but I am not sure what. (there should be a slash after the any domain name which it is not checking for right now and it is only checking \S)

thank you for your time.

Answer 1

$search  = "#^((?#     the scheme:   )(?:https?://)(?#     second level domains and beyond:   )(?:[\S]+\.)+((?#     top level domains:   )MUSEUM|TRAVEL|AERO|ARPA|ASIA|EDU|GOV|MIL|MOBI|(?#   )COOP|INFO|NAME|BIZ|CAT|COM|INT|JOBS|NET|ORG|PRO|TEL|(?#   )A[CDEFGILMNOQRSTUWXZ]|B[ABDEFGHIJLMNORSTVWYZ]|(?#   )C[ACDFGHIKLMNORUVXYZ]|D[EJKMOZ]|(?#   )E[CEGHRSTU]|F[IJKMOR]|G[ABDEFGHILMNPQRSTUWY]|(?#   )H[KMNRTU]|I[DELMNOQRST]|J[EMOP]|(?#   )K[EGHIMNPRWYZ]|L[ABCIKRSTUVY]|M[ACDEFGHKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ]|(?#   )N[ACEFGILOPRUZ]|OM|P[AEFGHKLMNRSTWY]|QA|R[EOSUW]|(?#   )S[ABCDEGHIJKLMNORTUVYZ]|T[CDFGHJKLMNOPRTVWZ]|(?#   )U[AGKMSYZ]|V[ACEGINU]|W[FS]|Y[ETU]|Z[AMW])(?#     the path, can be there or not:   )(/[a-z0-9\._/~%\-\+&\#\?!=\(\)@]*)?)$#i"; 

Just cleaned up a bit. This will match only HTTP(s) addresses, and, as long as you copied all top level domains correctly from IANA, only those standardized (it will not match http://localhost) and with the http:// declared.

Finally you should end with the path part, that will always start with a /, if it is there.

However, I'd suggest to follow Cerebrus: If you're not sure about this, learn regexps in a more gentle way and use proven patterns for complicated tasks.

Cheers,

By the way: Your regexp will also match something.r and something.h (between |TO| and |TR| in your example). I left them out in my version, as I guess it was a typo.

On re-reading the question: Change

  )(?:https?://)(?# 

to

  )(?:https?://)?(?# 

(there is a ? extra) to match 'URLs' without the scheme.

Answer 2

Not exactly what the OP asked for but this is a much simpler regular expression that does not need to be updated each time the IANA introduces a new TLD. I believe this is more adequate for most simple needs:

^(?:https?://)?(?:[\w]+\.)(?:\.?[\w]{2,})+$

no list of TLD, localhost is not matched, the number of subparts must be >= 2 and the length of each subpart must be >= 2 (fx: "a.a" will not match but "a.ab" will match).