Modify Regex to Also Match IP Address

Question

I currently use this regular expression to validate URLs:

^([a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+(\:[a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+)?@)?([a-z0-9-.]*)\.([a-z]{2,4})(\:0*(?:6553[0-5]|655[0-2][0-9]|65[0-4][0-9]{2}|6[0-4][0-9]{3}|[1-5][0-9]{4}|[1-9][0-9]{1,3}|[0-9]))?(\/([a-z0-9+\$_-]\.?)+)*\/?(\?[a-z+&\$_.-][a-z0-9;:@&%=+\/\$_.-]*)?(#[a-z_.-][a-z0-9+\$_.-]*)?$

It matches a fairly long list of URLs:

google.com
google.com#a1
google.com?abc=123
google.com:80
google.com:80#a1
google.com:80?abc=123
google.com:80/test
google.com:80/test#a1
google.com:80/test?abc=123
google.com:80/test?abc=123#a1
www.google.com
www.google.com#a1
www.google.com?abc=123
www.google.com:80
www.google.com:80#a1
www.google.com:80?abc=123
www.google.com:80/test
www.google.com:80/test#a1
www.google.com:80/test?abc=123
www.google.com:80/test?abc=123#a1
www.www.google.com
www.www.google.com#a1
www.www.google.com?abc=123
www.www.google.com:80
www.www.google.com:80#a1
www.www.google.com:80?abc=123
www.www.google.com:80/test
www.www.google.com:80/test#a1
www.www.google.com:80/test?abc=123
www.www.google.com:80/test?abc=123#a1
john:smith@google.com
john:smith@google.com#a1
john:smith@google.com?abc=123
john:smith@google.com:80
john:smith@google.com:80#a1
john:smith@google.com:80?abc=123
john:smith@google.com:80/test
john:smith@google.com:80/test#a1
john:smith@google.com:80/test?abc=123
john:smith@google.com:80/test?abc=123#a1
john:smith@www.google.com
john:smith@www.google.com#a1
john:smith@www.google.com?abc=123
john:smith@www.google.com:80
john:smith@www.google.com:80#a1
john:smith@www.google.com:80?abc=123
john:smith@www.google.com:80/test
john:smith@www.google.com:80/test#a1
john:smith@www.google.com:80/test?abc=123
john:smith@www.google.com:80/test?abc=123#a1
john:smith@www.www.google.com
john:smith@www.www.google.com#a1
john:smith@www.www.google.com?abc=123
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80#a1
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80?abc=123
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80/test
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80/test#a1
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80/test?abc=123
john:smith@www.www.google.com:80/test?abc=123#a1

However, it does not match these URLs which, to my knowledge, are also valid:

8.8.8.8
8.8.8.8#a1
8.8.8.8?abc=123
8.8.8.8:80
8.8.8.8:80#a1
8.8.8.8:80?abc=123
8.8.8.8:80/test
8.8.8.8:80/test#a1
8.8.8.8:80/test?abc=123
8.8.8.8:80/test?abc=123#a1
john:smith@8.8.8.8
john:smith@8.8.8.8#a1
john:smith@8.8.8.8?abc=123
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80#a1
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80?abc=123
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80/test
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80/test#a1
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80/test?abc=123
john:smith@8.8.8.8:80/test?abc=123#a1

For reference, I found this one for IP addresses which seems to work well:

^(?:(?: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]?)

How can I tie them together? Or, is there a better regex to match all the URLs here?

Demo:

http://rubular.com/r/ufuNkHqX5G

@hwnd Which data? The sample URLs are valid URLs for websites that I want to validate for. — okoboko, Nov 27 '14 at 03:09
The regex is from http://stackoverflow.com/a/6427654/3689902. — okoboko, Nov 27 '14 at 03:11

outlyer · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-27T04:33:30.010

1

You can combine two regular expressions together by doing (?:<regex1>|<regex2>), which means whatever matches regex1 or regex2. (The ?: means the added parentheses won't capture).

You can find a variety of regexes for URL validation online, e.g. In search of the perfect URL validation regex lists quite a few.

edited Nov 27 '14 at 04:33

answered Nov 27 '14 at 03:48

outlyer

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The parentheses are unnecessary -- simply `regex1|regex2` does it. However, if you factor out some parts, you need grouping. If regex1 is `^regex1-1$` and regex2 has a similar structure, you could refactor to `^(?:regex1-1|regex2-1)$` – tripleee Nov 27 '14 at 04:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Validating an email address is a bit more complicated than validating a webpage URL. In fact, determining a proper regex for validating an email address seems to be a question without one definitive right answer; see Using a regular expression to validate an email address

If you use PHP, you aren't limited to using a regex to validate email addresses and URLs, as the following code illustrates:

<?php
$url = "http://8.8.8.8";
$mess = (!filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL))? "invalid" : "valid";
echo $mess, ": $url\n";

$email = "me@he re.com";
$mess = (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL))? "invalid" :"valid";
echo $mess, ": $email\n";

Modify Regex to Also Match IP Address

2 Answers2