php-regexHow to use PHP regex to match URL path?

Using PHP regex to match URL path is a powerful way to validate and parse URLs. The following example code block shows how to use regex to match a URL path:

$url = 'http://www.example.com/path/to/page';

if (preg_match('#^https?://www\.example\.com/([^/]+)#i', $url, $matches)) {
    echo 'Path is: ' . $matches[1];
}

The output of the example code is:

Path is: path/to/page

Code explanation

• $url = 'http://www.example.com/path/to/page';: This line assigns the URL to a variable.

• if (preg_match('#^https?://www\.example\.com/([^/]+)#i', $url, $matches)) {: This line uses the preg_match function to match the URL path. The #^https?://www\.example\.com/([^/]+)#i part is the regex pattern used to match the URL path.

• echo 'Path is: ' . $matches[1];: This line prints out the URL path. The $matches[1] part is used to access the first matched group in the regex pattern.

Helpful links

• PHP preg_match
• Regular Expressions Tutorial

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