How to check if a url is valid in Swift?

Question

I am wondering what code I should use to check if a url is valid. AND I DON'T MEAN CHECKING FOR KEY WORDS LIKE "https//" or ".com" I mean checking if the url can be opened (aka is it a valid url). Truthfully I can not find an answer anywhere for this so anything would be a step in the right direction.

Answer 1

You can create an URLRequest, set its httpMethod to "HEAD", send an asynchronous request and check if the HTTPURLResponse statusCode is equal to 200:

extension URL {
    func isReachable(completion: @escaping (Bool) -> ()) {
        var request = URLRequest(url: self)
        request.httpMethod = "HEAD"
        URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { _, response, _ in
            completion((response as? HTTPURLResponse)?.statusCode == 200)
        }.resume()
    }
}

---

let url1 = URL(string: "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65224939/how-to-check-if-a-url-is-valid-in-swift")!
url1.isReachable { success in
    if success {
        print("url1 is reachable")  // url1 is reachable
    } else {
        print("url1 is unreachable")
    }
}

---

let url2 = URL(string: "https://stackoverflow.com/question/index.html")!
url2.isReachable { success in
    if success {
        print("url2 is reachable")
    } else {
        print("url2 is unreachable")  // url2 is unreachable
    }
}