parse_url()
parse_url() parses a URL string and returns its components as an associative array. The components it extracts are: scheme, host, port, user, pass, path, query, and fragment.
An optional second parameter accepts a PHP_URL_* constant to return a single component as a string or integer instead of the full array.
parse_url() is deliberately lenient: it does not validate that the URL is well-formed or reachable. It only splits the string according to RFC 3986 syntax. Providing a relative URL or a partial URL will return only the components that are present.
For validation, combine parse_url() with filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL). For building URLs, use http_build_query() for the query string part.
<?php
$url = 'https://user:pass@example.com:8080/path?query=value#section';
$parts = parse_url($url);
print_r($parts);
/**
* [
* scheme => 'https',
* host => 'example.com',
* port => 8080,
* user => 'user',
* pass => 'pass',
* path => '/path',
* query => 'query=value',
* fragment => 'section',
* ]
*/
$host = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST); // 'example.com'
?>
See Also
- RFC 3986
- Understanding and Implementing PHP’s
parse_url()Function - How to use parse_url() in PHP safely