PHP validate string to ensure it does not contain http:// or https:// or www

Question

I have the following if statement to check whether or not a string begins with http:// or https:// but I also need it to check whether it begins with www.

if (preg_match('#^https?://#i', $url) === 1) {
    // Starts with http:// or https:// (case insensitive).
}

So the following would fail:

But the following would pass the validation

website.com

How can I adapt this to check for the above?

Please check link:- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6427530/regular-expression-pattern-to-match-url-with-or-without-http-www — Alive to die - Anant, Apr 14 '15 at 10:59
There are multiple TLDs and could be numerous directories. Do you only care about any named domain on `.com`? — chris85, Apr 14 '15 at 11:03
@chris85 - Ultimately I want to make sure that 'myurl.com' is also valid but wanted to work this out as a start point. — Tom, Apr 14 '15 at 11:10
Not quite... the TLD is not important... just the http / https / www part - none of which should be present... — Tom, Apr 14 '15 at 11:13
Oh, so no www is valid. Okay how about `#(^(https?://|www\.)`? — chris85, Apr 14 '15 at 11:15
Awesome @chris85 - looks like that's done the trick... add it as an answer and I'll give it the tick... — Tom, Apr 14 '15 at 11:22

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 14 '15 at 11:39

Here's the regex #^(https?://|www\.)#i, and here's a way to test for future URLs (command line, change \n to <br> if testing in a browser).

<?php
$urls = array('http://www.website.com', 'https://www.website.com', 'http://website.com', 'https://website.com', 'www.website.com', 'website.com');
foreach($urls as $url) {
    if (preg_match('#^(https?://|www\.)#i', $url) === 1){
        echo $url . ' matches' . "\n";
    } else {
        echo $url . ' fails' . "\n";
    }
}

Output:

http://www.website.com matches
https://www.website.com matches
http://website.com matches
https://website.com matches
www.website.com matches
website.com fails

Ahmed Ziani · Answer 2 · 2015-04-14T13:42:21.737

1

Try with this:

preg_match('#^((https?://)|www\.?)#i', $url) === 1

edited Apr 14 '15 at 13:42

answered Apr 14 '15 at 11:03

Ahmed Ziani

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1

Targeted string doesn't have `www` and doesn't start with `http`. – chris85 Apr 14 '15 at 11:04
Still not quite there... `http://website.com` and `https://website.com` would still pass – Tom Apr 14 '15 at 11:17
This fails because you've made both parameters optional. – chris85 Apr 14 '15 at 11:31

PHP validate string to ensure it does not contain http:// or https:// or www

2 Answers2