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

If you need to also support https://localhost:3000 then use this modified version of [Devshed]s regex.

    function isURL(url) {
        if(!url) return false;
        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
            'localhost' + // OR localhost
            '(\\:\\d+)?(\\/[-a-z\\d%_.~+]*)*'+ // port and path
            '(\\?[;&a-z\\d%_.~+=-]*)?'+ // query string
            '(\\#[-a-z\\d_]*)?$', 'i'); // fragment locator
        return pattern.test(url);
    }