Extract YouTube ID with or without RegEx

Question

Please let me know how to get youtube ID without going to regular expression?

Using above method following URL, didn\'t work

Answer 1

You can use following RegEx

^(?:(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?)?(youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com|youtu\.be)\/.*?(?:embed|e|v|watch\?.*?v=)?\/?([a-z0-9]+)

RegEx Breakup:

1. ^: Start of the line anchor
2. (?:(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?)?:
   • (?:https?:\/\/)?: Match http:// or https:// optionally
   • (?:www\.)?)?: Match www. zero or one time
3. (youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com|youtu\.be)\/: Match either
   • youtube.com or youtube-nocookie.com or youtu.be followed by /
4. .*?: Lazy match. Match until the next pattern satisfies.
5. (?:embed|e|v|watch\?.*?v=)?\/?:
   • (?:embed|e|v|watch\?.*?v=)?: Match embed or e or v or from watch? to v= or nothing
   • \/?: Match / zero or one time
6. ([a-z0-9]+): Match one or more alphanumeric characters and add that in the captured group.

Live Demo^{Using JavaScript}

var regex = /^(?:(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?)?(youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com|youtu\.be)\/.*?(?:embed|e|v|watch\?.*?v=)?\/?([a-z0-9]+)/i;

// An array of all the youtube URLs
var youtubeLinks = [
    'http://www.youtube.com/e/dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'http://www.youtube.com/v/0zM3nApSvMg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0',
    'http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zM3nApSvMg?rel=0',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg&feature=feedrec_grec_index',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg',
    'http://youtu.be/0zM3nApSvMg',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zM3nApSvMg#t=0m10s',
    'http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'http://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'http://www.youtube.com/v/dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ',
    'http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/6L3ZvIMwZFM?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0'
];

// An object to store the results
var youtubeIds = {};

// Iterate over the youtube URLs
youtubeLinks.forEach(function(url) {
    // Get the value of second captured group to extract youtube ID
    var id = "<span class='youtubeId'>" + (url.match(regex) || [0, 0, 'No ID present'])[2] + "</span>";

    // Add the URL and the extracted ID in the result object
    youtubeIds[url] = id;
});

// Log the object in the browser console
console.log(youtubeIds);

// To show the result on the page
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = JSON.stringify(youtubeIds, 0, 4);

.youtubeId {
    color: green;
    font-weight: bold;
}

<pre id="output"></pre>

Answer 2

Your regex is designed for youtu.be domain, of course it doesn't work with youtube.com one.

1. Construct java.net.URL (https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/net/URL.html) from your URL string
2. Use URL#getQuery() to get the query part
3. Check Parse a URI String into Name-Value Collection for a ways to decode query part into a name-value map, and get value for name 'v'
4. If there is no 'query' part (like in http://www.youtube.com/e/dQw4w9WgXcQ), then use URL#getPath() (which will give you /e/dQw4w9WgXcQ) and parse your video ID from it, e. g., by skipping first 3 symbols: url.getPath().substring(3)

Update. Why not regex? Because standard JDK URL parser is much more robust. It is being tested by the whole Java community, while RegExp-based reinvented wheel is only tested by your own code.

Answer 3

I like to use this function for all YouTube video ids. I pass through the url and return only the id. Check the fiddle below.

 var ytSrc = function( url ){
    var regExp = /^.*((youtu.be\/)|(v\/)|(\/u\/\w\/)|(embed\/)|(watch\?))\??v?=?([^#\&\?]*).*/;
    var match = url.match(regExp);
    if (match&&match[7].length==11){
        return match[7];
    }else{
     alert("Url incorrecta");
    }

}

https://jsfiddle.net/keinchy/tL4thwd7/1/