Validating URLs in Python

Question

I\'ve been trying to figure out what the best way to validate a URL is (specifically in Python) but haven\'t really been able to find an answer. It seems like there isn\'t o

Answer 1

The original question is a bit old, but you might also want to look at the Validator-Collection library I released a few months back. It includes high-performing regex-based validation of URLs for compliance against the RFC standard. Some details:

• Tested against Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8
• No dependencies on Python 3.x, one conditional dependency in Python 2.x (drop-in replacement for Python 2.x's buggy re module)
• Unit tests that cover 100+ different succeeding/failing URL patterns, including non-standard characters and the like. As close to covering the whole spectrum of the RFC standard as I've been able to find.

It's also very easy to use:

from validator_collection import validators, checkers

checkers.is_url('http://www.stackoverflow.com')
# Returns True

checkers.is_url('not a valid url')
# Returns False

value = validators.url('http://www.stackoverflow.com')
# value set to 'http://www.stackoverflow.com'

value = validators.url('not a valid url')
# raises a validator_collection.errors.InvalidURLError (which is a ValueError)

value = validators.url('https://123.12.34.56:1234')
# value set to 'https://123.12.34.56:1234'

value = validators.url('http://10.0.0.1')
# raises a validator_collection.errors.InvalidURLError (which is a ValueError)

value = validators.url('http://10.0.0.1', allow_special_ips = True)
# value set to 'http://10.0.0.1'

In addition, Validator-Collection includes about 60+ other validators, including IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6), domains, and email addresses as well, so something folks might find useful.