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

The best and simplest answer so far using get_headers() The best thing to check for string "200 ok". its far better than to check

$file_headers = @get_headers($file-path);
$file_headers[0];

because sometime the array key numbers varies. so best thing is to check for "200 ok". Any URL which is up will have "200 ok" anywhere in get_headers() response.

function url_exist($url) {
        $urlheaders = get_headers($url);
        //print_r($urlheaders);
        $urlmatches  = preg_grep('/200 ok/i', $urlheaders);
         if(!empty($urlmatches)){
           return true;
         }else{
           return false;
         }
}

now check the function if true or false

if(url_exist(php-url-variable-here)
  URL exist
}else{
  URL don't exist
}