jQuery Youtube URL Validation with regex

Question

I know there is plenty of question answered over here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/youtube+regex, but not able find a question similar to me.

Any body has the JavaScript Regular expression for validating the YouTube VIDEO URL's line below listed. Just want to know where such a URL can be possible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQVoAWSP7k4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQVoAWSP7k4&feature=popular
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNqjYiFmyQ&feature=related&bhablah
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bQVoAWSP7k4

-- update 1-- -- update 2--

This one worked almost fine, but failed for the URL http://youtube.com/watch?v=bQVoAWSP7k4

var matches = $('#videoUrl').val().match(/http:\/\/(?:www\.)?youtube.*watch\?v=([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)/);
if (matches) {
    alert('valid');
} else {
    alert('Invalid');
}

Solution 1

^http:\/\/(?:www\.)?youtube.com\/watch\?v=\w+(&\S*)?$

//if v can be anywhere in the query list

^http:\/\/(?:www\.)?youtube.com\/watch\?(?=.*v=\w+)(?:\S+)?$

Solution 2

ULTIMATE YOUTUBE REGEX

Cherry picking

/**
 * JavaScript function to match (and return) the video Id 
 * of any valid Youtube Url, given as input string.
 * @author: Stephan Schmitz <[email protected]>
 * @url: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10315969/624466
 */
function ytVidId(url) {
  var p = /^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:embed\/|v\/|watch\?v=|watch\?.+&v=))((\w|-){11})(?:\S+)?$/;
  return (url.match(p)) ? RegExp.$1 : false;
}

The full story

Amarghosh's regex looks good, at first sight. But it:

1. doesn't match video id's that include dashes (-),
2. doesn't validate the id length (v=aa and v=aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa return to be valid),
3. and doesn't match secured URLs at all (https://youtube.com/watch?valid_params)

To match https, the dash character, and to validate the id length, this was my initial suggestion of a modified version of Amarghosh's regex:

^https?:\/\/(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/watch\?(?=.*v=((\w|-){11}))(?:\S+)?$

UPDATE 1: URLs versus Strings

After I posted the above pattern, I was asked: "What if the URL is like this;
youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en-US&v=bQVoAWSP7k4"?

First of, please note that this not a URL at all. RFC compliant URLs must start with the scheme! ;)

Anyway, to match any kind of string that indicates to refer to a YouTube video, I updated my answer to exclude the URL scheme being required. So my second suggestion was as follows:

^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/watch\?(?=.*v=((\w|-){11}))(?:\S+)?$

UPDATE 2: The ultimate regex

Then I was asked to add support for a "special case"; the youtu.be short urls. Initially I did not add these, since it wasn't specifically part of the question. However I updated my answer now with all possible "special cases". This means that not only have I added support for youtu.be links, but also the request paths "/v" and "/embed".

So, may I introduce: My final and ultimate Youtube regex:

^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:embed\/|v\/|watch\?v=|watch\?.+&v=))((\w|-){11})(?:\S+)?$

What strings are matched?

Now this pattern will work for any strings, formatted as follows:

Without scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtu.be, Path: /)

youtu.be/<video:id>   

Without scheme, with subdomain (Domain: youtu.be, Path: /)

www.youtu.be/<video:id>     

With HTTP scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtu.be, Path: /)

http://youtu.be/<video:id>   

With HTTP scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtu.be, Path: /)

http://www.youtu.be/<video:id>   

With HTTPS scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtu.be, Path: /)

https://youtu.be/<video:id>     

With HTTPS scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtu.be, Path: /)

https://www.youtu.be/<video:id>   

Without scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /embed)

youtube.com/embed/<video:id>   
youtube.com/embed/<video:id>&other_params 

Without scheme, with subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /embed)

www.youtube.com/embed/<video:id>   
www.youtube.com/embed/<video:id>&other_params   

With HTTP scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /embed)

http://youtube.com/embed/<video:id>   
http://youtube.com/embed/<video:id>&other_params  

With HTTP scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /embed)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/<video:id>   
http://www.youtube.com/embed/<video:id>&other_params  

With HTTPS scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /embed)

https://youtube.com/embed/<video:id>   
https://youtube.com/embed/<video:id>&other_params    

With HTTPS scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /embed)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/<video:id>   
https://www.youtube.com/embed/<video:id>&other_params

Without scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /v)

youtube.com/v/<video:id>   
youtube.com/v/<video:id>&other_params 

Without scheme, with subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /v)

www.youtube.com/v/<video:id>   
www.youtube.com/v/<video:id>&other_params   

With HTTP scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /v)

http://youtube.com/v/<video:id>   
http://youtube.com/v/<video:id>&other_params  

With HTTP scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /v)

http://www.youtube.com/v/<video:id>   
http://www.youtube.com/v/<video:id>&other_params  

With HTTPS scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /v)

https://youtube.com/v/<video:id>   
https://youtube.com/v/<video:id>&other_params    

With HTTPS scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /v)

https://www.youtube.com/v/<video:id>   
https://www.youtube.com/v/<video:id>&other_params   

Without scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /watch)

youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>   
youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>&other_params   
youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id> 
youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>&more_params  

Without scheme, with subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /watch)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>   
www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>&other_params   
www.youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>  
www.youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>&more_params   

With HTTP scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /watch)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>   
http://youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>&other_params   
http://youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>   
http://youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>&more_params  

With HTTP scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /watch)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>&other_params   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>&more_params  

With HTTPS scheme, without subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /watch)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>   
https://youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>&other_params   
https://youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>   
https://youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>&more_params     

With HTTPS scheme and subdomain (Domain: youtube.com, Path: /watch)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video:id>&other_params   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?other_params&v=<video:id>&more_params  

FUNCTIONAL USAGE

The most easy way to use the pattern, is to wrap it into a function such as this one:

/**
 * JavaScript function to match (and return) the video Id
 * of any valid Youtube Url, given as input string.
 * @author: Stephan Schmitz <[email protected]>
 * @url: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10315969/624466
 */
function ytVidId(url) {
  var p = /^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:embed\/|v\/|watch\?v=|watch\?.+&v=))((\w|-){11})(?:\S+)?$/;
  return (url.match(p)) ? RegExp.$1 : false;
}

// for example snippet only!
document.body.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
    if (e.target.className == 'yt-url' && 'undefined' !== e.target.value) {
        var ytId = ytVidId(e.target.value);
        alert(e.target.value + "\r\nResult: " + (!ytId ? 'false' : ytId));
    }
}, false);

<!-- Click the buttons to probe URLs -->
<input type="button" value="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-e2G_VcTms&feature=g-logo&context=G29aead6FOAAAAAAABAA" class="yt-url">
<input type="button" value="https://www.youtube.com/latest" class="yt-url">

If the type of the function's result value must be a boolean value, just replace RegExp.$1 by true. That's it.

One final note on the video Id length: One asked if the ids have a fixed length of 11 chars? and if it might change in the future?

The best answer to that question is probably also the only "official" statement that I've found here and which says: "I don't see anywhere in the documentation where we officially commit to a standard length of 11 characters for YouTube video ids. It's one of those things where we have a current implementation, and it may stay that way indefinitely. But we're not offering any official commitment to that, so proceed at your own risk."

Solution 3

You can not match the id-part with \w+, as it does not include the dash character (-). [a-zA-Z0-9_-]+ would be something more correct.

Solution 4

@eyecatchup ubove has an excelent regex, but with the help of regexper.com i saw that his regex will pass any youtube url where the ?v parameter had a value of any word or - sign repeated 11 times. But youtube specificly restricts the video id to 11 characters so a fix for his regex would be

/^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:embed\/|v\/|watch\?v=|watch\?.+&v=))((.|-){11})(?:\S+)?$/

compare the vizualization of his regex

http://www.regexper.com/#/%5E%28?:https?:%5C/%5C/%29?%28?:www%5C.%29?%28?:youtu%5C.be%5C/%7Cyoutube%5C.com%5C/%28?:embed%5C/%7Cv%5C/%7Cwatch%5C?v=%7Cwatch%5C?.%2b&v=%29%29%28%28%5Cw%7C-%29%7B11%7D%29%28?:%5CS%2b%29?$/

and my fix

http://www.regexper.com/#%2F%5E(%3F%3Ahttps%3F%3A%5C%2F%5C%2F)%3F(%3F%3Awww%5C.)%3F(%3F%3Ayoutu%5C.be%5C%2F%7Cyoutube%5C.com%5C%2F(%3F%3Aembed%5C%2F%7Cv%5C%2F%7Cwatch%5C%3Fv%3D%7Cwatch%5C%3F.%2B%26v%3D))((%5Ba-zA-Z0-9%5D%7C-)%7B11%7D)(%3F%3A%5CS%2B)%3F%24%2F

as an edit to the 11 character limit changing in future then the current regex would mean that any word or - would have to be repeated exactly 11 times, to that my fix is

/^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:embed\/|v\/|watch\?v=|watch\?.+&v=))((\w|-){11,})(?:\S+)?$/

Solution 5

 /* test youtube */
 var src = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCPLKrRguDM";
  regExTestYT(src);
   function regExTestYT(str){
   var exp = new RegExp(/(youtu\.be|youtube\.com)/);
   return exp.test(str); 
  }

View more solutions

Comments

[Mithun Sreedharan]

Great one but failed for youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en-US&v=bQVoAWSP7k4

[eyecatchUp]

You can not validate the id length with +, {11} would be something more correct. ;)

[eyecatchUp]

Forgot to mention that (\w|-) is shorter than [a-zA-Z0-9_-]. :p ;)

[Yasin Ergul]

is ids fixed to 11 chars? it might be change in the future?

[Yasin Ergul]

youtube.com part in your regexp can match anything like youtubeXcom, you should escape that period

[Yasin Ergul]

youtube.com part in your regexp can match anything like youtubeXcom, you should escape that period

[eyecatchUp]

The best answer to that question is probably also the only "official" statement i've found here groups.google.com/group/youtube-api-gdata/browse_thread/thre‌​ad/… and which says "I don't see anywhere in the documentation where we officially commit to a standard length of 11 characters for YouTube video ids. It's one of those things where we have a current implementation, and it may stay that way indefinitely. But we're not offering any official commitment to that, so proceed at your own risk."

[eyecatchUp]

see my answer (stackoverflow.com/a/10315969/624466) for an improved version.

[FizzBuzz]

What if the URL is like this; youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=en-US&v=bQVoAWSP7k4

[eyecatchUp]

Congrats. You posted an outdated version of my code above.

[Pratik]

@Amarghosh , can you please do courtecy of telling which urls out of 2 are correct? Is it very difficult to give some explanation ?

[lightsaber]

It gives following warning "nested repeat operator '+' and '?' was replaced with '*' in regular expression"

[Ankan-Zerob]

@eyecatchUp badly need a youtube "playlist" ultimate youtube regex :) work your magic :D or maybe I can do this :D

[ElektroStudios]

Not really "ultimate", the provided expression will fail with any Youtube url sent via channel subscription, like this: "youtube.com/attribution_link?a=Od7TH6HFkco&u=/…", also, I'm not sure if the current expression is validating other fields such as "&feature=em-uploademail", any update to this, please?. thanks in advance!

[befzz]

RegExp.$1-$9 is Deprecated

[optimista]

The last part: (?:\S+)?. Why to use two repeat operators (+, ?)? [gives me a warning in ruby]. Isn't (?:\S*) more convenient?

[Envayo]

This seems to validate for video IDs longer than 11 characters too. Any ideas how to fix? Also, any replacement for RegExp.$1? Seems to be deprecated.

[Envayo]

Seems to be no longer working. It validates video IDs longer than 11 characters too.

[SuperUberDuper]

Can anyone get this to work with HTML input pattern? ie <input type="url" pattern="(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.c‌​om\/(?:embed\/|v\/|w‌​atch\?v=|watch\?.+&v‌​=))((\w|-){11})(?:\S‌​+)?$" required It always fails on form submit

[SuperUberDuper]

@ElektroStudios this really should be a gist now or even repo

[eyecatchUp]

@SuperUberDuper Not sure, what exactly fails. But for me the regex works fine as an input pattern as well. See codepen.io/eyecatchup/pen/mdrxzmj

[Joshua Bitton]

How do you make it still work if the string contains a youtube link with some text. For example, 'check this video: youtube.com/watch?v=LZk4vbLG0jU '

[eyecatchUp]

@JoshuaBitton Just remove the leading ^ and trailing $ from the regex, like so: /(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:e‌​mbed\/|v\/|watch\?v=‌​|watch\?.+&v=))((\w|‌​-){11})(?:\S+)?/. See: codepen.io/eyecatchup/pen/jOVaovX

[Joshua Bitton]

how would you be able to return the link and console.log the message in the string, so it would be a string containing the youtube link and the message