Regex for Youtube or Vevo

Question

Is there any regex formula for Youtube and Vevo videos?

Here are some sample code: Youtube: CevxZvSJLk8 Vevo: USUV71402382

From what I know, the pattern seems to have small letters for a youtube video. How do I detect them properly using regex?

Just to make it clear, here are my questions:

What is the right regex pattern for a Youtube code?
What is the right regex pattern for Vevo code?

I'm trying to put the codes on the last part of the url: Vevo: http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=USUV70904460 Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/embed/P1j-6vRykFs

The code will look like this:

function get_video_url($video_code) {
  if (preg_match_all('<Youtube regex code>',$video_code)) {
    return "http://www.youtube.com/embed/" . $code;
  } elseif (preg_match_all('<Vevo regex code>',$video_code)) {
    return "http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=" . $code;
  } else {
    return "Youtube or vevo link anyway.";
  }
}

I just need the regex, though.

Where are you getting the codes from? Is it possible to just check the domain name? — Οurous, Dec 04 '14 at 03:09
For the vevo, if that is the pattern then its [a-zA-Z]{4}\d{8} — argentum47, Dec 04 '14 at 04:33
I don't think that Vevo has a small letter, though. I was thinking of something similar with a credit card number pattern, wherein you can predict "US" as the first 2 letters and the rest of the letters and number follow accordingly. — Franz Noel, Dec 04 '14 at 05:32

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

0

From everything I can tell, VEVO codes are 12 characters long while youtube videos are 11 characters long.

The oldest vevo video I can find, pulled from their facebook, has a 12 character, all-caps code http://www.vevo.com/watch/lady-gaga/Speechless-(Live-At-The-VEVO-Launch-Event)/USUV70904460

As do the newest.

Here, however, is PHP code if you prefer regex matching.

  if (preg_match("/[^\w-]+/",$video_code)) {
    return "Invalid video code";
  } else if (preg_match("/^[A-Z0-9]+$/",$video_code)) {
    return "http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=" . $video_code;
  } else {
    return "http://www.youtube.com/embed/" . $video_code;
  }

After some researching I found this:

Sources.

#2 Provides a wonderful regex that would essentially work like this:

  if (preg_match("/^([A-Z]{2}[A-Z0-9]{3}\d{2}\d{5})$/",$video_code)) {
    return "http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=" . $video_code;
  } else if (preg_match("/^[\w-]{11}+$/",$video_code)) {
    return "http://www.youtube.com/embed/" . $video_code;
  }  else {
    return "Invalid video code";
  }

edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

Community

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answered Dec 04 '14 at 06:41

Regular Jo

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Thanks. I've revised the invalid code because Youtube URLs have dashes: preg_match("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s-]+/",$video_code). Thanks, @cfqueryparam. – Franz Noel Dec 04 '14 at 18:19
@FranzNoel Alright, I've updated my answer so that it as well. May I ask why you also include a space in the code? Wouldn't it be better to trim surrounding whitespace rather than let it pass a check? `$video_code = trim($video_code);`? Also I found a helpful couple of posts and assembled a better bit of code that, short of petitioning the services themselves, is probably the best you could get. – Regular Jo Dec 04 '14 at 19:42
I didn't know the regex refers to a space. I thought it refers to a dash. Thanks, appreciate it, and I think preg_match_all is more relevant than using preg_match because it checks the whole string of the video code. – Franz Noel Dec 04 '14 at 21:58
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@FranzNoel Actually, as I understand it, `preg_match()` finds the first occurrence and `preg_match_all()` grabs every occurrence. (I am not a php programmer at all, but this is what I have read) If you were parsing multiple video codes out of a variable, you would then use `_all()` As to matching the whole string, mine does that because it begins with `^` and ends with `$`, the respective regex values for start and end of line. (`^` as the first character within a character class has a different meaning--to exclude the characters that follow it). – Regular Jo Dec 04 '14 at 22:49

Regex for Youtube or Vevo

1 Answers1