parse_url

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

parse_url — Parse a URL and return its components

Description

mixed parse_url ( string $url [, int $component = -1 ] )

This function parses a URL and returns an associative array containing any of the various components of the URL that are present.

This function is not meant to validate the given URL, it only breaks it up into the above listed parts. Partial URLs are also accepted, parse_url() tries its best to parse them correctly.

Parameters

url

The URL to parse. Invalid characters are replaced by _.

component

Specify one of PHP_URL_SCHEME, PHP_URL_HOST, PHP_URL_PORT, PHP_URL_USER, PHP_URL_PASS, PHP_URL_PATH, PHP_URL_QUERY or PHP_URL_FRAGMENT to retrieve just a specific URL component as a string (except when PHP_URL_PORT is given, in which case the return value will be an integer).

Return Values

On seriously malformed URLs, parse_url() may return FALSE.

If the component parameter is omitted, an associative array is returned. At least one element will be present within the array. Potential keys within this array are:

  • scheme - e.g. http
  • host
  • port
  • user
  • pass
  • path
  • query - after the question mark ?
  • fragment - after the hashmark #

If the component parameter is specified, parse_url() returns a string (or an integer, in the case of PHP_URL_PORT) instead of an array. If the requested component doesn't exist within the given URL, NULL will be returned.

Changelog

Version Description
5.4.7 Fixed host recognition when scheme is omitted and a leading component separator is present.
5.3.3 Removed the E_WARNING that was emitted when URL parsing failed.
5.1.2 Added the component parameter.

Examples

Example #1 A parse_url() example

<?php
$url = 'http://username:password@hostname:9090/path?arg=value#anchor';

var_dump(parse_url($url));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_SCHEME));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_USER));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PASS));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PORT));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PATH));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY));
var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_FRAGMENT));
?>

The above example will output:

array(8) {
  ["scheme"]=>
  string(4) "http"
  ["host"]=>
  string(8) "hostname"
  ["port"]=>
  int(9090)
  ["user"]=>
  string(8) "username"
  ["pass"]=>
  string(8) "password"
  ["path"]=>
  string(5) "/path"
  ["query"]=>
  string(9) "arg=value"
  ["fragment"]=>
  string(6) "anchor"
}
string(4) "http"
string(8) "username"
string(8) "password"
string(8) "hostname"
int(9090)
string(5) "/path"
string(9) "arg=value"
string(6) "anchor"

Example #2 A parse_url() example with missing scheme

<?php
$url = '//www.example.com/path?googleguy=googley';

// Prior to 5.4.7 this would show the path as "//www.example.com/path"
var_dump(parse_url($url));
?>

The above example will output:

array(3) {
  ["host"]=>
  string(15) "www.example.com"
  ["path"]=>
  string(5) "/path"
  ["query"]=>
  string(17) "googleguy=googley"
}

Notes

Note:

This function doesn't work with relative URLs.

Note:

This function is intended specifically for the purpose of parsing URLs and not URIs. However, to comply with PHP's backwards compatibility requirements it makes an exception for the file:// scheme where triple slashes (file:///...) are allowed. For any other scheme this is invalid.

See Also