Regular expression for youtube links - regex

Question

Does someone have a regular expression that gets a link to a Youtube video (not embedded object) from (almost) all the possible ways of linking to Youtube?
I think this is a pretty common problem and I'm sure there are a lot of ways to link that.
A starting point would be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA&feature=related
http://youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
http://youtu.be/n17B_uFF4cA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r5nB9u4jjy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ZRX8984sc
http://youtu.be/t-ZRX8984sc
... please add more possible links and/or regular expressions to detect them.

Answer 1

So far I got this Regular expression working for the examples I posted, and it gets the ID on the first group:
http(?:s?):\/\/(?:www\.)?youtu(?:be\.com\/watch\?v=|\.be\/)([\w\-\_]*)(&(amp;)?‌​[\w\?‌​=]*)?

Answer 2

You can use this expression below.
(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?youtu\.?be(?:\.com)?\/?.*(?:watch|embed)?(?:.*v=|v\/|\/)([\w\-_]+)\&?
I'm using it, and it cover the most used URLs.
I'll keep updating it on This Gist.
You can test it on this tool.

Answer 3

I like #brunodles's solution the most but you can still match non video links like https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
I went with this solution
(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?youtu(?:\.be\/|be.com\/\S*(?:watch|embed)(?:(?:(?=\/[-a-zA-Z0-9_]{11,}(?!\S))\/)|(?:\S*v=|v\/)))([-a-zA-Z0-9_]{11,})
It can also be used to match multiple whitespace separated links.
The video id will be captured in the first group.
Tested with the following urls:
youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoBL33GT9S8&feature=share
https://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/embed/v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?u=/watch?v=aGmiw_rrNxk&feature=share
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
// will not match
https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgc00bfF_PvO_2AvqJZHXFg
https://www.youtube.com/c/NatGeoEdOrg/videos
https://regex101.com/r/rq2KLv/1

Answer 4

I improved the links posted above with a friend for a script I wrote for IRC to recognize even links without http at all. It worked on all stress tests I got so far, including garbled text with barely recognizable youtube urls, so here it is:
~(?:https?://)?(?:www\.)?youtu(?:be\.com/watch\?(?:.*?&(?:amp;)?)?v=|\.be/)([\w\-]+)(?:&(?:amp;)?[\w\?=]*)?~

Answer 5

I testet all the regular expressions that are shown here and none could cover all url types that my client was using.
I built this pretty much through trial and error, but it seems to work with all the patterns that Poppy Deejay posted.
"(?:.+?)?(?:\/v\/|watch\/|\?v=|\&v=|youtu\.be\/|\/v=|^youtu\.be\/)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11})+"
Maybe it helps someone who is in a similar situation that I had today ;)

Answer 6

Piggy backing on Fanmade, this covers the below links including the url encoded version of attribution_links:
(?:.+?)?(?:\/v\/|watch\/|\?v=|\&v=|youtu\.be\/|\/v=|^youtu\.be\/|watch\%3Fv\%3D)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11})+
https://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=tolCzpA7CrY&u=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DMoBL33GT9S8%26feature%3Dshare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoBL33GT9S8&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA&feature=related
http://youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
www.youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/v/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/v/i_GFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-GFalTRHDA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?u=/watch?v=aGmiw_rrNxk&feature=share&a=9QlmP1yvjcllp0h3l0NwuA
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=fF1CWYwxCQ4&u=/watch?v=qYr8opTPSaQ&feature=em-uploademail
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=fF1CWYwxCQ4&feature=em-uploademail&u=/watch?v=qYr8opTPSaQ

Answer 7

I've been having problems lately with the atttribution_link urls so i tried making my own regex that works for those too.
Here is my regex string:
(https?://)?(www\\.)?(yotu\\.be/|youtube\\.com/)?((.+/)?(watch(\\?v=|.+&v=))?(v=)?)([\\w_-]{11})(&.+)?
and here are some test cases i've tried:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA&feature=related
http://youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
www.youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/v/iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/v/i_GFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-GFalTRHDA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?u=/watch?v=aGmiw_rrNxk&feature=share&a=9QlmP1yvjcllp0h3l0NwuA
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=fF1CWYwxCQ4&u=/watch?v=qYr8opTPSaQ&feature=em-uploademail
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=fF1CWYwxCQ4&feature=em-uploademail&u=/watch?v=qYr8opTPSaQ
Also remember to check the string you get for your video url, sometimes it may get the percent characters. If so just do this
url = [url stringByReplacingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
and it should fix it.
Remember also that the index of the youtube key is now index 9.
NSRange youtubeKey = [result rangeAtIndex:9]; //the youtube key
NSString * strKey = [url substringWithRange:youtubeKey] ;

Answer 8

It'd be the longest RegEx in the world if you managed to cover all link formats, but here's one to get you started which will cover the first couple of link formats:
http://(www\.)?youtube\.com/watch\?.*v=([a-zA-Z0-9]+).*
The second group will match the video ID if you need to get that out.

Answer 9

(?:http?s?:\/\/)?(?:www.)?(?:m.)?(?:music.)?youtu(?:\.?be)(?:\.com)?(?:(?:\w*.?:\/\/)?\w*.?\w*-?.?\w*\/(?:embed|e|v|watch|.*\/)?\??(?:feature=\w*\.?\w*)?&?(?:v=)?\/?)([\w\d_-]{11})(?:\S+)?
https://regex101.com/r/nJzgG0/3
Detects YouTube and YouTube Music link in any string

Answer 10

I took all variants from here:
https://gist.github.com/rodrigoborgesdeoliveira/987683cfbfcc8d800192da1e73adc486#file-youtubeurlformats-txt
And built this regexp (YouTube ID is in group 2):
(\/|%3D|v=|vi=)([0-9A-z-_]{11})[%#?&\s]
Check it here: https://regexr.com/4u4ud
Edit: Works for any single string w/o breaks.

Answer 11

I'm working with that kind of links:
http://www.youtube.com/v/M-faNJWc9T0?fs=1&rel=0
And here's the regEx I'm using to get ID from it:
"(.+?)(\/v/)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11})+"

Answer 12

This is iterating on the existing answers and handles edge cases better. (for example http://thisisnotyoutu.be/thing)
/(?:https?:\/\/|www\.|m\.|^)youtu(?:be\.com\/watch\?(?:.*?&(?:amp;)?)?v=|\.be\/)([\w‌​\-]+)(?:&(?:amp;)?[\w\?=]*)?/

Answer 13

here is the complete solution for getting youtube video id for java or android, i didn't found any link which doesn't work with this function
public static String getValidYoutubeVideoId(String youtubeUrl)
{
if(youtubeUrl == null || youtubeUrl.trim().contentEquals(""))
{
return "";
}
youtubeUrl = youtubeUrl.trim();
String validYoutubeVideoId = "";
String regexPattern = "^(?:https?:\\/\\/)?(?:[0-9A-Z-]+\\.)?(?:youtu\\.be\\/|youtube\\.com\\S*[^\\w\\-\\s])([\\w\\-]{11})(?=[^\\w\\-]|$)(?![?=&+%\\w]*(?:['\"][^<>]*>|<\\/a>))[?=&+%\\w]*";
Pattern regexCompiled = Pattern.compile(regexPattern, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
Matcher regexMatcher = regexCompiled.matcher(youtubeUrl);
if(regexMatcher.find())
{
try
{
validYoutubeVideoId = regexMatcher.group(1);
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
}
}
return validYoutubeVideoId;
}

Answer 14

This is my answer to use in Scala. This is useful to extract 11 digits from Youtube's URL.
"https?://(?:[0-9a-zA-Z-]+.)?(?:www.youtube.com/|youtu.be\S*[^\w-\s])([\w -]{11})(?=[^\w-]|$)(?![?=&+%\w](?:[\'"][^<>]>|))[?=&+%\w-]*"
def getVideoLinkWR: UserDefinedFunction = udf(f = (videoLink: String) => {
val youtubeRgx = """https?://(?:[0-9a-zA-Z-]+\.)?(?:youtu\.be/|youtube\.com\S*[^\w\-\s])([\w \-]{11})(?=[^\w\-]|$)(?![?=&+%\w]*(?:[\'"][^<>]*>|</a>))[?=&+%\w-./]*""".r
videoLink match {
case youtubeRgx(a) => s"$a".toString
case _ => videoLink.toString
}
}

Answer 15

Youtube video URL Change to iframe supported link:
REGEX: https://regex101.com/r/LeZ9WH/2/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA&feature=related
http://youtu.be/iwGFalTRHDA
http://youtu.be/n17B_uFF4cA
http://www.youtube.com/embed/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r5nB9u4jjy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-ZRX8984sc
http://youtu.be/t-ZRX8984sc
https://youtu.be/2sFlFPmUfNo?t=1
Php function example:
if (!function_exists('clean_youtube_link')) {
/**
* #param $link
* #return string|string[]|null
*/
function clean_youtube_link($link)
{
return preg_replace(
'#(.+?)(\/)(watch\x3Fv=)?(embed\/watch\x3Ffeature\=player_embedded\x26v=)?([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{11})+#',
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/$5",
$link
);
}
}

Answer 16

This should work for almost all youtube links when extracting from a string:
((?:https?:)?\/\/)?((?:www|m)\.)?((?:youtube\.com|youtu.be))(\/(?:[\w\-]+\?v=|embed\/|v\/)?)([\w\-]{10}).\b

Answer 17

var isValidYoutubeLink: Bool{
// working for all the youtube url's
NSPredicate(format: "SELF MATCHES %#", "(?:http?s?:\\/\\/)?(?:www.)?(?:m.)?(?:music.)?youtu(?:\\.?be)(?:\\.com)?(?:(?:\\w*.?:\\/\\/)?\\w*.?\\w*-?.?\\w*\\/(?:embed|e|v|watch|.*\\/)?\\??(?:feature=\\w*\\.?\\w*)?&?(?:v=)?\\/?)([\\w\\d_-]{11})(?:\\S+)?").evaluate(with: self)
}

Answer 18

With this Javascript Regex, the first capture is a video ID :
^(?:https?:)?(?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube(?:\-nocookie)?\.(?:[A-Za-z]{2,4}|[A-Za-z]{2,3}\.[A-Za-z]{2})\/)(?:watch|embed\/|vi?\/)*(?:\?[\w=&]*vi?=)?([^#&\?\/]{11}).*$

Answer 19

(?-s)^https?\W+(?:www\.|m\.|music\.)*youtu\.?be(?:\.com|\/watch|\/o?embed|\/shorts|\/attribution_link\?[&\w\-=]*[au]=|\/ytsc\w+|[\?&\/]+[ve]i?\b|\?feature=\w+|-nocookie)*[\/=]([a-z\d\-_]{11})[\?&#% \t ] *.*$
or
(?-s)^(?:(?!https?[:\/]|www\.|m\.yo|music\.yo|youtu\.?be[\/\.]|watch[\/\?]|embed\/)\V)*(?:https?[:\/]+|www\.|m\.|music\.)+youtu\.?be(?:\.com\/|watch|o?embed(?:\/|\?url=\S+?)?|shorts|attribution_link\?[&\w\-=]*[au]=\/?|ytsc\w+|[\?&]*[ve]i?\b|\?feature=\w+|[\?&]time_continue=\d+|-nocookie|%[23][56FD])*(?:[\/=]|%2F|%3D)([a-z\d\-_]{11})[\?&#% \t ]? *.*$
(the part >>#% \t⠀　]<< should contain continuous space, which is Alt+255, but stackoverflow-com can't print it)
(this string may be replaced to \1, sorted and abbreviated with: )
V█(?-i)^([A-Za-z\d\-_]{11})(?:\v+\1)*$
>█https:\/\/youtu\.be\/\1
(./dot can take up any symbol; \V or [^\r\n] can any except special, emoji and others; this >> [^!-⠀：／‽｜\s] << can grab some emoji)
https://youtu.be/x26ANNC3C-8 • ♾ 𝕳𝕰𝕽𝕰𝕿𝕳𝕰𝖄𝕮𝕺𝕸𝕰 - 𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔪𝔢 𝔞𝔩𝔬𝔫𝔢 • 7:15

Answer 20

This regex solve my problem, I can get youtube link having watch, embed or shared link
(?:http(?:s)?:\/\/)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be\/|youtube\.com\/(?:(?:watch)?\?(?:.*&)?v(?:i)?=|(?:embed|v|vi|user)\/))([^\?&\"'<> #]+)
You can check here https://regex101.com/r/Kvk0nB/1