Take a look at the answer here:
PHP regex for url validation, filter_var is too permisive
filter_var()
could be just fine for you, but if you need something more powerful, you'll have to use regex.
Additionally with the code from here, you can sub-in any regex that suits your needs:
<?php
$regex = "((https?|ftp)\:\/\/)?"; // SCHEME
$regex .= "([a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+(\:[a-z0-9+!*(),;?&=\$_.-]+)?@)?"; // User and Pass
$regex .= "([a-z0-9-.]*)\.([a-z]{2,3})"; // Host or IP
$regex .= "(\:[0-9]{2,5})?"; // Port
$regex .= "(\/([a-z0-9+\$_-]\.?)+)*\/?"; // Path
$regex .= "(\?[a-z+&\$_.-][a-z0-9;:@&%=+\/\$_.-]*)?"; // GET Query
$regex .= "(#[a-z_.-][a-z0-9+\$_.-]*)?"; // Anchor
?>
Then, the correct way to check against the regex list as follows:
<?php
if(preg_match("/^$regex$/", $url))
{
return true;
}
?>