Youtube Video ID From URL - Objective C

Question

I basically have a Youtube url as an NSString, but I need to extract the video id that is displayed in the url. I found many tutorials on how to do this in php or and other

Answer 1

Here is my solution which referenced from StackOveFlow. (Youtube I.D parsing for new URL formats)

I did some modification.

///This is the .h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
@interface YoutubeParser : NSObject

+(BOOL) isValidateYoutubeURL:(NSString * )youtubeURL;

+(NSArray *) parseHTML:(NSString *)html ;

@end

///This is the .m 
#import "YoutubeParser.h"

@interface YoutubeParser () {
}

@end

@implementation YoutubeParser

#define YOUTUBE_PATTERN @"(https?://)?(www\\.)?(youtu\\.be/|youtube\\.com)?(/|/embed/|/v/|/watch\\?v=|/watch\\?.+&v=)([\\w_-]{11})(&.+)?"

+(NSRegularExpression *)regex {

    static NSRegularExpression * regex = nil;

    regex =     [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:YOUTUBE_PATTERN
                                                               options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive
                                                                 error:nil];
    return regex;
}

+(BOOL) isValidateYoutubeURL:(NSString * )youtubeURL {
    NSInteger cnt = [[YoutubeParser regex] numberOfMatchesInString:youtubeURL options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, [youtubeURL length])  ];

    return cnt > 0 ? YES : NO;
}

typedef void (^matching_block_t)  (NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop);

+(NSArray *) parseHTML:(NSString *)html {
    NSMutableArray * youtubeURLArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

    matching_block_t parseTask = ^(NSTextCheckingResult *result, NSMatchingFlags flags, BOOL *stop) {
        NSRange matchRange = [result range];
        NSRange youtubeKey = [result rangeAtIndex:5]; //the youtube key
        NSString * strKey = [html substringWithRange:youtubeKey] ;
        NSLog(@"youtubeKey=%@ , with url=%@ " ,strKey , [html substringWithRange:matchRange]);

        [youtubeURLArray addObject:strKey];
    };

    [[YoutubeParser regex] enumerateMatchesInString:html   options:0   range:NSMakeRange(0, [html length])   usingBlock:parseTask ];

    return youtubeURLArray;
}

@end

Answer 2

Based on this answer: PHP Regex to get youtube video ID?

I adapted a regex for c/objc/c++ string, the important part here is that the regex doesn't get videos from facebook or other services. iOS regex is based on: ICU

NSString *regexString = @"^(?:http(?:s)?://)?(?:www\\.)?(?:m\\.)?(?:youtu\\.be/|youtube\\.com/(?:(?:watch)?\\?(?:.*&)?v(?:i)?=|(?:embed|v|vi|user)/))([^\?&\"'>]+)";

NSError *error;
NSRegularExpression *regex =
[NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:regexString
                                          options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive
                                            error:&error];
NSTextCheckingResult *match = [regex firstMatchInString:message
                                                options:0
                                                  range:NSMakeRange(0, [message length])];

if (match && match.numberOfRanges == 2) {
    NSRange videoIDRange = [match rangeAtIndex:1];
    NSString *videoID = [message substringWithRange:videoIDRange];

    return videoID;
}

Matches:

• youtube.com/v/vidid
• youtube.com/vi/vidid
• youtube.com/?v=vidid
• youtube.com/?vi=vidid
• youtube.com/watch?v=vidid
• youtube.com/watch?vi=vidid
• youtu.be/vidid
• youtube.com/embed/vidid
• http://youtube.com/v/vidid
• http://www.youtube.com/v/vidid
• https://www.youtube.com/v/vidid
• youtube.com/watch?v=vidid&wtv=wtv
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?dev=inprogress&v=vidid&feature=related
• https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vidid

Does not match:

• www.facebook.com?wtv=youtube.com/v/vidid
• https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155279523025107

Answer 3

There is a lot of good answers here but I thought it might be beneficial to some to parse multiple video_ID from a string. This could be a web page or an array of different URL.

Example of page content

NSString *content = @"http://www.youtube.com/user/Scobleizer#p/u/1/1p3vcRhsYGo,http://youtu.be/NLqAF9hrVbY,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLqAF9hrVbY,http://facebook.com,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAcqdjLCN7s";

Method

-(NSArray *)extractVideos:(NSString *)content {
    NSString *extractRegex = @"(?<=v(=|/))([-a-zA-Z0-9_]+)|(?<=youtu.be/)([-a-zA-Z0-9_]+)"
    NSMutableArray *extractedContent = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    if ([content hasPrefix:@"http://"] || [content hasPrefix:@"https://"]) {
        NSURL *extractURL = [NSURL URLWithString:content];
        if ([extractURL.host rangeOfString:@"youtu"].location != NSNotFound) {
            NSRegularExpression *extractRegex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:extractRegex options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive error:nil];
            NSArray *extractResults = [extractRegex matchesInString:content options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, content.length)];
            for (NSTextCheckingResult *match in extractResults) {
                [extractedContent addObject:[content substringWithRange:match.range]];

            }

        }

    }

    return extractedContent;

}

Output

( 
    NLqAF9hrVbY,
    QLqAF9eeVbY,
    cAcqdjLCN7s
)

Credit to @Alex for the Regex

Answer 4

You don't even need regexes. The following works regardless of the length of the video ID and its position within the URL:

NSString *vID = nil;
NSString *url = @"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAcqdjLCN7s";

NSString *query = [url componentsSeparatedByString:@"?"][1];
NSArray *pairs = [query componentsSeparatedByString:@"&"];
for (NSString *pair in pairs) {
    NSArray *kv = [pair componentsSeparatedByString:@"="];
    if ([kv[0] isEqualToString:@"v"]) {
        vID = kv[1];
        break;
    }
}

NSLog(@"%@", vID);

Answer 5

I figured it out by myself...

NSArray *videoURLSplit = [videoURL componentsSeparatedByString:@"v="];
NSString *videoID = [[videoURLSplit objectAtIndex:1] substringToIndex:11];
NSLog(@"%@",videoID);

Very simple... All video urls contain v=VIDEO_ID I just separated the url into an array and then took the first 11 digits of what is after v= since there could be more http GET information in the url...

Thanks for helping though!

Answer 6

Here is RegExp it cover these cases

Objective C

- (NSString *)extractYoutubeIdFromLink:(NSString *)link {
    NSString *regexString = @"((?<=(v|V)/)|(?<=be/)|(?<=(\\?|\\&)v=)|(?<=embed/))([\\w-]++)";
    NSRegularExpression *regExp = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:regexString
                                                                            options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive
                                                                              error:nil];

    NSArray *array = [regExp matchesInString:link options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,link.length)];
    if (array.count > 0) {
        NSTextCheckingResult *result = array.firstObject;
        return [link substringWithRange:result.range];
    }
    return nil;
}

Swift

func extractYoutubeIdFromLink(link: String) -> String? {
    let pattern = "((?<=(v|V)/)|(?<=be/)|(?<=(\\?|\\&)v=)|(?<=embed/))([\\w-]++)"
    guard let regExp = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .CaseInsensitive) else {
        return nil
    }
    let nsLink = link as NSString
    let options = NSMatchingOptions(rawValue: 0)
    let range = NSRange(location: 0,length: nsLink.length)
    let matches = regExp.matchesInString(link as String, options:options, range:range)
    if let firstMatch = matches.first {
        return nsLink.substringWithRange(firstMatch.range)
    }
    return nil
}

Swift 3

func extractYoutubeIdFromLink(link: String) -> String? {
    let pattern = "((?<=(v|V)/)|(?<=be/)|(?<=(\\?|\\&)v=)|(?<=embed/))([\\w-]++)"
    guard let regExp = try? NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .caseInsensitive) else {
        return nil
    }
    let nsLink = link as NSString
    let options = NSRegularExpression.MatchingOptions(rawValue: 0)
    let range = NSRange(location: 0, length: nsLink.length)
    let matches = regExp.matches(in: link as String, options:options, range:range)
    if let firstMatch = matches.first {
        return nsLink.substring(with: firstMatch.range)
    }
    return nil
}