Check if a JavaScript string is a URL

Question

Is there a way in JavaScript to check if a string is a URL?

RegExes are excluded because the URL is most likely written like stackoverflow; that is to s

Answer 1

function isURL(str) {
  var pattern = new RegExp('^(https?:\\/\\/)?'+ // protocol
  '((([a-z\\d]([a-z\\d-]*[a-z\\d])*)\\.?)+[a-z]{2,}|'+ // domain name
  '((\\d{1,3}\\.){3}\\d{1,3}))'+ // OR ip (v4) address
  '(\\:\\d+)?(\\/[-a-z\\d%_.~+]*)*'+ // port and path
  '(\\?[;&a-z\\d%_.~+=-]*)?'+ // query string
  '(\\#[-a-z\\d_]*)?$','i'); // fragment locator
  return pattern.test(str);
}