How can I check if a URL exists via PHP?

Question

How do I check if a URL exists (not 404) in PHP?

Answer 1

$url = 'http://google.com';
$not_url = 'stp://google.com';

if (@file_get_contents($url)): echo "Found '$url'!";
else: echo "Can't find '$url'.";
endif;
if (@file_get_contents($not_url)): echo "Found '$not_url!";
else: echo "Can't find '$not_url'.";
endif;

// Found 'http://google.com'!Can't find 'stp://google.com'.