Check if a JavaScript string is a URL

Question

Is there a way in JavaScript to check if a string is a URL?

RegExes are excluded because the URL is most likely written like stackoverflow; that is to s

Answer 1

This is defiantly not the most effective approach, but it is readable and easy to form to whatever you need. And it's easier to add regex/complexity from here. So here is a very pragmatic approach

const validFirstBits = ["ftp://", "http://", "https://", "www."];
const invalidPatterns = [" ", "//.", ".."];

export function isUrl(word) {
// less than www.1.dk
if (!word || word.length < 8) return false;

// Let's check and see, if our candidate starts with some of our valid first bits
const firstBitIsValid = validFirstBits.some(bit => word.indexOf(bit) === 0);
if (!firstBitIsValid) return false;

const hasInvalidPatterns = invalidPatterns.some(
    pattern => word.indexOf(pattern) !== -1,
);

if (hasInvalidPatterns) return false;

const dotSplit = word.split(".");
if (dotSplit.length > 1) {
    const lastBit = dotSplit.pop(); // string or undefined
    if (!lastBit) return false;
    const length = lastBit.length;
    const lastBitIsValid =
        length > 1 || (length === 1 && !isNaN(parseInt(lastBit)));
    return !!lastBitIsValid;
}

    return false;
}

TEST:

import { isUrl } from "./foo";

describe("Foo", () => {
    test("should validate correct urls correctly", function() {
        const validUrls = [
            "http://example.com",
            "http://example.com/blah",
            "http://127.0.0.1",
            "http://127.0.0.1/wow",
            "https://example.com",
            "https://example.com/blah",
            "https://127.0.0.1:1234",
            "ftp://example.com",
            "ftp://example.com/blah",
            "ftp://127.0.0.1",
            "www.example.com",
            "www.example.com/blah",
        ];

        validUrls.forEach(url => {
            expect(isUrl(url) && url).toEqual(url);
        });
    });

    test("should validate invalid urls correctly", function() {
        const inValidUrls = [
            "http:// foo.com",
            "http:/foo.com",
            "http://.foo.com",
            "http://foo..com",
            "http://.com",
            "http://foo",
            "http://foo.c",
        ];

        inValidUrls.forEach(url => {
            expect(!isUrl(url) && url).toEqual(url);
        });
    });
});