Regex for website or url validation

Question

I know this is so common question & there are so many answers for this, but my problem is different, I want to accept the URL with all below formats:

http://www.sample.com
https://www.sample.com
http://www.sample.com/xyz
www.sample.com
www.sample.com/xyz/#/xyz
sample.com

// & much more ...

So here idea is, I am allowing the user to enter there website & another user can just click on the saved website & go to users website. So here it's not a good idea to restrict the user to input proper URL, they can enter any of the above formats. Here is the regex I am using right now, but that only checks if URL starts from proper protocol:

^(ftp|http|https):\/\/[^ "]+$

Do you want validation for protocol or domain address?, If it's for protocol, check for default browser protocol if not specified, accordingly do validation. — Satishakumar Awati, Mar 06 '17 at 06:30
Actually both, user can enter with protocol or only domain but not just any random string like, it should match those given criteria I have entered in question — Dheeraj Agrawal, Mar 06 '17 at 06:32
so with proper protocol, if the url contains "sample.com" it should pass, is that what you mean ? — Mustofa Rizwan, Mar 06 '17 at 06:50
@Rizwan, Yes thats one of the best and easiest way to handle above validation. — Satishakumar Awati, Mar 06 '17 at 06:56
@RizwanM.Tuman also its possible that there will be no protocol, so that should pass as well if there is no protocol I will handle it myself, why to ask user to enter it, some users even don't know HTTP or HTTPS — Dheeraj Agrawal, Mar 06 '17 at 07:24
How exactly is your problem different from all the other ones out there? — , Mar 06 '17 at 07:34
@torazaburo mostly I have found answers for URL validation and if for domain then those doesn't contain `hash` or `query strings` — Dheeraj Agrawal, Mar 06 '17 at 07:45
@torazaburo I understand, I should have included those, but those are needed & my excepted answer covers everything. — Dheeraj Agrawal, Mar 06 '17 at 12:54

Sagar V · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-06T07:51:57.947

56

Use the regex ^((https?|ftp|smtp):\/\/)?(www.)?[a-z0-9]+\.[a-z]+(\/[a-zA-Z0-9#]+\/?)*$

This is a basic one I build just now. A google search can give you more.

Here

^ Should start with
((https?|ftp|smtp)://)? may or maynot contain any of these protocols
(www.)? may or may not have www.
[a-z0-9]+(.[a-z]+) url and domain and also subdomain if any upto 2 levels
(/[a-zA-Z0-9#]+/?)*/? can contain path to files but not necessary. last may contain a /
$ should end there

var a=["http://www.sample.com","https://www.sample.com/","https://www.sample.com#","http://www.sample.com/xyz","http://www.sample.com/#xyz","www.sample.com","www.sample.com/xyz/#/xyz","sample.com","sample.com?name=foo","http://www.sample.com#xyz","http://www.sample.c"];
var re=/^((https?|ftp|smtp):\/\/)?(www.)?[a-z0-9]+(\.[a-z]{2,}){1,3}(#?\/?[a-zA-Z0-9#]+)*\/?(\?[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+=[a-zA-Z0-9-%]+&?)?$/;
a.map(x=>console.log(x+" => "+re.test(x)));

edited Mar 06 '17 at 07:51

answered Mar 06 '17 at 06:59

Sagar V

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If I enter like this `http://www.sample.com/` `/` at the last it does not work also for query strings – Dheeraj Agrawal Mar 06 '17 at 07:33
edited. please check it – Sagar V Mar 06 '17 at 07:34
thanks for solutions, but sorry to bother you again, but this is failing `http://www.sample.com#` also it doesn't support query strings those could start like `http://www.sample.com?xyz=abc` or `http://www.sample.com/?xyz=abc` – Dheeraj Agrawal Mar 06 '17 at 07:38
query string support added. – Sagar V Mar 06 '17 at 07:39
2

added support for http://www.sample.com# – Sagar V Mar 06 '17 at 07:41
`http://www.sample.com#xyz` this is failing but this works `http://www.sample.com/#xyz` – Dheeraj Agrawal Mar 06 '17 at 07:42
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/137319/discussion-between-sagar-v-and-dheeraj-agrawal). – Sagar V Mar 06 '17 at 07:46
2

this does not support. www.google.co.in – Talk is Cheap Show me Code Mar 21 '18 at 11:30
3

Hi, To support URLs like `https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/8-regular-expressions-you-should-know--net-6149` , i think you should change `(#?\/?[a-zA-Z0-9#]+)` to `(#?\/?[a-zA-Z0-9-_#]+)` – Malinda Mar 22 '18 at 04:00
2

This does not support URL like "https://web-site.com" or "https://www.web-site.com" – smartmouse Feb 25 '19 at 14:28
Doesn't support `http://blog.example.com` – Kishore Barik May 13 '19 at 14:39
^((https?|ftp|smtp):\/\/)?(www.)?([a-zA-Z0-9]{2,})+\.[a-zA-Z0-9]+(\.[a-zA-Z0-9]*)?(\/[a-zA-Z0-9#]+\/?)*$ You could use this for sub domains or vist: https://themadhurgupta.blogspot.com/2019/09/regular-expression.html – MADHUR GUPTA Sep 12 '19 at 09:31
it does validate https://xy.com.br/\{}<>|`^"/bb also spaces ! – Diego Favero Aug 10 '20 at 00:36
@SagarV : its showing valid even if i just put ftp or www or smtp in the text field , which is not valid – Akshay Champavat Oct 12 '21 at 10:09
@AkshayChampavat please re check and if you're able to reproduce it, share a fiddle link – Sagar V Oct 12 '21 at 18:48
^((https?|ftp|smtp):\/\/)?(www.)?[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+\.[a-z]+(\/[a-zA-Z0-9#_-]+\/?)*$ support - _ not perfect yet... working will share updated one letter – Rajib Jun 23 '22 at 17:32

Mustofa Rizwan · Answer 2 · 2022-03-01T09:12:28.180

14

You can try this:

^((ftp|http|https):\/\/)?(www.)?(?!.*(ftp|http|https|www.))[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+(\.[a-zA-Z]+)+((\/)[\w#]+)*(\/\w+\?[a-zA-Z0-9_]+=\w+(&[a-zA-Z0-9_]+=\w+)*)?\/?$

Updated Demo

const regex = /^((ftp|http|https):\/\/)?(www.)?(?!.*(ftp|http|https|www.))[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+(\.[a-zA-Z]+)+((\/)[\w#]+)*(\/\w+\?[a-zA-Z0-9_]+=\w+(&[a-zA-Z0-9_]+=\w+)*)?\/?$/gm;
const str = `http://www.sample.com
https://www.sample.com
http://www.sample.com/xyz
www.sample.com
www.sample.com/xyz/#/xyz
sample.com
www.sample.com
mofiz.com
kolim.com
www.murikhao.www.sample.com
http://murihao.www.sample.com
http://www.sample.com/xyz?abc=dkd&p=q&c=2
www.sample.gov.bd
www.sample.com.en
www.sample.vu
www.sample.u/


`;
let m;

while ((m = regex.exec(str)) !== null) {

    if (m.index === regex.lastIndex) {
        regex.lastIndex++;
    }
    console.log("matched :"+m[0]);
}

edited Mar 01 '22 at 09:12

answered Mar 06 '17 at 07:02

Mustofa Rizwan

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this doesn't support *subdomain* _(I should have added that to my list)_ also it should support other top level domains `.tv, .in, .co.in` all this are valid – Dheeraj Agrawal Mar 06 '17 at 07:30
yeah you should have :) the base of my answer was to have sample.com, help me define the base, to have answer of your liking – Mustofa Rizwan Mar 06 '17 at 07:31
yeah so it could be anything, it could contain any top level domain, any domain name _(not only sample)_, protocol, query strings & hash – Dheeraj Agrawal Mar 06 '17 at 07:35
1

:D :D I thought you were only talking about sample.com in the first place , plz take a look now :P – Mustofa Rizwan Mar 06 '17 at 07:42
@DheerajAgrawal does this solve your problem now ? – Mustofa Rizwan Mar 06 '17 at 07:53
with the test cases I have asked in my question its working fine, but as I started testing more I found more test cases & my accepted answer is solving all those cases. I should I put all test cases while asking. – Dheeraj Agrawal Mar 06 '17 at 08:02
One of best answers here. @Sagar answer is also good but it is not validating some forms (i.e. www.i, www.jsjjs.) . But this answer is working for all those cases. – Shahrukh Anwar Jan 16 '19 at 05:00
It doesn't validate valid URLs if you add `/` at the end. For example: `https//www.google.com/` – smartmouse Feb 25 '19 at 15:40
Have you tested this regex by putting str value as "test", url validation not working – Nimesh khatri Jul 02 '20 at 09:42

Regex for website or url validation

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