CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regex
uno
uno

Reputation: 1481

My URL regex isn't perfect, how to fix and make group(s) optional?

Issue: I need my regex to have an optional group. Specifically "www" and "(https|http):.

Regex:

/\A^(https|http):\/\/www\.twitter\.com\/\w+\/status\/\d+/

Validation (FYI)

validates :twitter_link, format: { with: /\A^(https|http):\/\/www\.twitter\.com\/\w+\/status\/\d+/}

I need to make the "www" optional. Everything else seems to be working good.

What I need (and in order):

Such as these possible links:

Possible Links:

urls = [
  "https://twitter.com/Twitt_erDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "http://twitter.com/Twit1243terDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "https://www.twitter.com/Twi234_tterDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "http://www.twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "http://m.twitter.com/Tw11itterDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "https://m.twitter.com/Tw11itterDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "www.twitter.com/Twitt11erDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "m.twitter.com/Tw11itterDev/status/850006245121695744",
  "twitter.com/Twitte345_rDev/status/850006245121695744",
]

How to make the "www" and "http/https" optional? And is my regex secure/good?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 63

Answers (1)

41686d6564
41686d6564

Reputation: 19641

To make something optional, you should use the ? quantifier, which basically means zero or one times.1 Now, if what you want to make optional is more than one character, you simply put it in a group (preferably, a non-capturing group) and then follow it with the question-mark-quantifier.

Something like the following should work for all your examples:

^(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:(?:www|m)\.)?twitter\.com\/\w+\/status\/\d+

Try it online.

References:

1 Another optional quantifier is the *, which means between zero and unlimitted times but it's not the right fit for your case.

Upvotes: 1

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