JavaScript Regex to match a URL in a field of text

Question

How can I setup my regex to test to see if a URL is contained in a block of text in javascript. I cant quite figure out the pattern to use to accomplish this

Answer 1

Here's the most complete single URL parsing pattern.

It works with ANY URI/URL in ANY substring!

https://regex101.com/r/jO8bC4/5

Example JS code with output - every URL is turned into a 5-part array of its 'parts':

var re = /([a-z]+\:\/+)([^\/\s]*)([a-z0-9\-@\^=%&;\/~\+]*)[\?]?([^ \#]*)#?([^ \#]*)/ig; 
var str = 'Bob: Hey there, have you checked https://www.facebook.com ?\n(ignore) https://github.com/justsml?tab=activity#top (ignore this too)';
var m;

while ((m = re.exec(str)) !== null) {
    if (m.index === re.lastIndex) {
        re.lastIndex++;
    }
    console.log(m);
}

Will give you the following:

["https://www.facebook.com",
  "https://",
  "www.facebook.com",
  "",
  "",
  ""
]

["https://github.com/justsml?tab=activity#top",
  "https://",
  "github.com",
  "/justsml",
  "tab=activity",
  "top"
]

BAM! RegEx FTW!