What would be the regex to get the view code from youtube urls?

Question

I just need to get the view code from youtube urls. The api is returning back strings that look like this:

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XODUrTtvZks&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I need to get this part:

XODUrTtvZks

from the above, keep in mind that sometimes there may be additional parameters after the v=something like:

&feature=youtube_gdata_player

and sometimes there may not be. Can someone please provide the regex that would work in this situation and an example of how to use it using javascript?

You mean like this: http://www.rubular.com/r/gETdpfrVwc. You can look into Regular Expression for Javascript [here](http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/jsref_obj_regexp.asp). — mellamokb, Oct 07 '11 at 15:35
You may find [my answer to a very similar](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5830387/php-regex-find-all-youtube-video-ids-in-string/5831191#5831191) question to be helpful. — ridgerunner, Oct 08 '11 at 02:36

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:35

1

You can use /v=([^&]+)/ and get the match at offset 1.

answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:35

mck89

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And i give my own answer, dude – mck89 Oct 07 '11 at 15:44

fivedigit · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-07T15:48:39.113

0

This snippet only matches on URL's from youtube.com:

var url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XODUrTtvZks&feature=youtube_gdata_player';
var matches = url.match(/^http[s]?:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?\s*v=([^&]+)/i);

if (matches) {
    var videoID = matches[1];
    // do stuff
}

edited Oct 07 '11 at 15:48

answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:40

fivedigit

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:42

0

You can use an online tool called RegExr to get your regular expression ,[http://gskinner.com/RegExr/].

Regards Rahul

answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:42

Rahul

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:46

This snippet is from Google’s own parser at closure:

function getIdFromUrl(url) {
    return /https?:\/\/(?:[a-zA_Z]{2,3}.)?(?:youtube\.com\/watch\?)((?:[\w\d\-\_\=]+&amp;(?:amp;)?)*v(?:&lt;[A-Z]+&gt;)?=([0-9a-zA-Z\-\_]+))/i.exec(url)[2];
}

You can see it here:

http://code.google.com/p/closure-library/source/browse/trunk/closure/goog/ui/media/youtube.js?r=1221#246

What would be the regex to get the view code from youtube urls?

4 Answers4