How to check if a URL is valid

Question

How can I check if a string is a valid URL?

For example:

http://hello.it => yes
http:||bra.ziz, => no

If this is a valid URL

Answer 1

You could also use a regex, maybe something like http://www.geekzilla.co.uk/View2D3B0109-C1B2-4B4E-BFFD-E8088CBC85FD.htm assuming this regex is correct (I haven't fully checked it) the following will show the validity of the url.

url_regex = Regexp.new("((https?|ftp|file):((//)|(\\\\))+[\w\d:\#@%/;$()~_?\+-=\\\\.&]*)")

urls = [
    "http://hello.it",
    "http:||bra.ziz"
]

urls.each { |url|
    if url =~ url_regex then
        puts "%s is valid" % url
    else
        puts "%s not valid" % url
    end
}

The above example outputs:

http://hello.it is valid
http:||bra.ziz not valid