We Keep Coding

Regex for domain extraction [duplicate]

How can I check if a given string is a valid URL address?
My knowledge of regular expressions is basic and doesn't allow me to choose from the hundreds of regular expressions I've already seen on the web.

I wrote my URL (actually IRI, internationalized) pattern to comply with RFC 3987 (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3987.html). These are in PCRE syntax.
For absolute IRIs (internationalized):
/^[a-z](?:[-a-z0-9\+\.])*:(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*#)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){6}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){5}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){4}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){3}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){2}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::)|v[0-9a-f]+\.[-a-z0-9\._~!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:]+)\]|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3}|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*)?|(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])|[\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])|[\/\?])*)?$/i
To also allow relative IRIs:
/^(?:[a-z](?:[-a-z0-9\+\.])*:(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*#)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){6}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){5}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){4}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){3}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){2}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::)|v[0-9a-f]+\.[-a-z0-9\._~!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:]+)\]|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3}|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*)?|(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])|[\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])|[\/\?])*)?|(?:\/\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:])*#)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){6}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){5}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){4}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){3}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){2}(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3})|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::[0-9a-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9a-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9a-f]{1,4})?::)|v[0-9a-f]+\.[-a-z0-9\._~!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:]+)\]|(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?:\.(?:[0-9]|[1-9][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])){3}|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=])*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*|\/(?:(?:(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*)?|(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=#])+)(?:\/(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#]))*)*|(?!(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])))(?:\?(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])|[\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}\/\?])*)?(?:\#(?:(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]|[-a-z0-9\._~\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}!\$&'\(\)\*\+,;=:#])|[\/\?])*)?)$/i
How they were compiled (in PHP):
<?php
/* Regex convenience functions (character class, non-capturing group) */
function cc($str, $suffix = '', $negate = false) {
return '[' . ($negate ? '^' : '') . $str . ']' . $suffix;
}
function ncg($str, $suffix = '') {
return '(?:' . $str . ')' . $suffix;
}
/* Preserved from RFC3986 */
$ALPHA = 'a-z';
$DIGIT = '0-9';
$HEXDIG = $DIGIT . 'a-f';
$sub_delims = '!\\$&\'\\(\\)\\*\\+,;=';
$gen_delims = ':\\/\\?\\#\\[\\]#';
$reserved = $gen_delims . $sub_delims;
$unreserved = '-' . $ALPHA . $DIGIT . '\\._~';
$pct_encoded = '%' . cc($HEXDIG) . cc($HEXDIG);
$dec_octet = ncg(implode('|', array(
cc($DIGIT),
cc('1-9') . cc($DIGIT),
'1' . cc($DIGIT) . cc($DIGIT),
'2' . cc('0-4') . cc($DIGIT),
'25' . cc('0-5')
)));
$IPv4address = $dec_octet . ncg('\\.' . $dec_octet, '{3}');
$h16 = cc($HEXDIG, '{1,4}');
$ls32 = ncg($h16 . ':' . $h16 . '|' . $IPv4address);
$IPv6address = ncg(implode('|', array(
ncg($h16 . ':', '{6}') . $ls32,
'::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{5}') . $ls32,
ncg($h16, '?') . '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{4}') . $ls32,
ncg($h16 . ':' . $h16, '?') . '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{3}') . $ls32,
ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,2}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . ncg($h16 . ':', '{2}') . $ls32,
ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,3}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . $h16 . ':' . $ls32,
ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,4}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . $ls32,
ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,5}') . $h16, '?') . '::' . $h16,
ncg(ncg($h16 . ':', '{0,6}') . $h16, '?') . '::',
)));
$IPvFuture = 'v' . cc($HEXDIG, '+') . cc($unreserved . $sub_delims . ':', '+');
$IP_literal = '\\[' . ncg(implode('|', array($IPv6address, $IPvFuture))) . '\\]';
$port = cc($DIGIT, '*');
$scheme = cc($ALPHA) . ncg(cc('-' . $ALPHA . $DIGIT . '\\+\\.'), '*');
/* New or changed in RFC3987 */
$iprivate = '\x{E000}-\x{F8FF}\x{F0000}-\x{FFFFD}\x{100000}-\x{10FFFD}';
$ucschar = '\x{A0}-\x{D7FF}\x{F900}-\x{FDCF}\x{FDF0}-\x{FFEF}' .
'\x{10000}-\x{1FFFD}\x{20000}-\x{2FFFD}\x{30000}-\x{3FFFD}' .
'\x{40000}-\x{4FFFD}\x{50000}-\x{5FFFD}\x{60000}-\x{6FFFD}' .
'\x{70000}-\x{7FFFD}\x{80000}-\x{8FFFD}\x{90000}-\x{9FFFD}' .
'\x{A0000}-\x{AFFFD}\x{B0000}-\x{BFFFD}\x{C0000}-\x{CFFFD}' .
'\x{D0000}-\x{DFFFD}\x{E1000}-\x{EFFFD}';
$iunreserved = '-' . $ALPHA . $DIGIT . '\\._~' . $ucschar;
$ipchar = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . ':#'));
$ifragment = ncg($ipchar . '|' . cc('\\/\\?'), '*');
$iquery = ncg($ipchar . '|' . cc($iprivate . '\\/\\?'), '*');
$isegment_nz_nc = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . '#'), '+');
$isegment_nz = ncg($ipchar, '+');
$isegment = ncg($ipchar, '*');
$ipath_empty = '(?!' . $ipchar . ')';
$ipath_rootless = ncg($isegment_nz) . ncg('\\/' . $isegment, '*');
$ipath_noscheme = ncg($isegment_nz_nc) . ncg('\\/' . $isegment, '*');
$ipath_absolute = '\\/' . ncg($ipath_rootless, '?'); // Spec says isegment-nz *( "/" isegment )
$ipath_abempty = ncg('\\/' . $isegment, '*');
$ipath = ncg(implode('|', array(
$ipath_abempty,
$ipath_absolute,
$ipath_noscheme,
$ipath_rootless,
$ipath_empty
))) . ')';
$ireg_name = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . '#'), '*');
$ihost = ncg(implode('|', array($IP_literal, $IPv4address, $ireg_name)));
$iuserinfo = ncg($pct_encoded . '|' . cc($iunreserved . $sub_delims . ':'), '*');
$iauthority = ncg($iuserinfo . '#', '?') . $ihost . ncg(':' . $port, '?');
$irelative_part = ncg(implode('|', array(
'\\/\\/' . $iauthority . $ipath_abempty . '',
'' . $ipath_absolute . '',
'' . $ipath_noscheme . '',
'' . $ipath_empty . ''
)));
$irelative_ref = $irelative_part . ncg('\\?' . $iquery, '?') . ncg('\\#' . $ifragment, '?');
$ihier_part = ncg(implode('|', array(
'\\/\\/' . $iauthority . $ipath_abempty . '',
'' . $ipath_absolute . '',
'' . $ipath_rootless . '',
'' . $ipath_empty . ''
)));
$absolute_IRI = $scheme . ':' . $ihier_part . ncg('\\?' . $iquery, '?');
$IRI = $scheme . ':' . $ihier_part . ncg('\\?' . $iquery, '?') . ncg('\\#' . $ifragment, '?');
$IRI_reference = ncg($IRI . '|' . $irelative_ref);
Edit 7 March 2011: Because of the way PHP handles backslashes in quoted strings, these are unusable by default. You'll need to double-escape backslashes except where the backslash has a special meaning in regex. You can do that this way:
$escape_backslash = '/(?<!\\)\\(?![\[\]\\\^\$\.\|\*\+\(\)QEnrtaefvdwsDWSbAZzB1-9GX]|x\{[0-9a-f]{1,4}\}|\c[A-Z]|)/';
$absolute_IRI = preg_replace($escape_backslash, '\\\\', $absolute_IRI);
$IRI = preg_replace($escape_backslash, '\\\\', $IRI);
$IRI_reference = preg_replace($escape_backslash, '\\\\', $IRI_reference);

I've just written up a blog post for a great solution for recognizing URLs in most used formats such as:
www.google.com
http://www.google.com
mailto:somebody#google.com
somebody#google.com
www.url-with-querystring.com/?url=has-querystring
The regular expression used is:
/((([A-Za-z]{3,9}:(?:\/\/)?)(?:[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+#)?[A-Za-z0-9.-]+|(?:www.|[-;:&=\+\$,\w]+#)[A-Za-z0-9.-]+)((?:\/[\+~%\/.\w-_]*)?\??(?:[-\+=&;%#.\w_]*)#?(?:[\w]*))?)/

What platform? If using .NET, use System.Uri.TryCreate, not a regex.
For example:
static bool IsValidUrl(string urlString)
{
Uri uri;
return Uri.TryCreate(urlString, UriKind.Absolute, out uri)
&& (uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeHttp
|| uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeHttps
|| uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeFtp
|| uri.Scheme == Uri.UriSchemeMailto
/*...*/);
}
// In test fixture...
[Test]
void IsValidUrl_Test()
{
Assert.True(IsValidUrl("http://www.example.com"));
Assert.False(IsValidUrl("javascript:alert('xss')"));
Assert.False(IsValidUrl(""));
Assert.False(IsValidUrl(null));
}
(Thanks to #Yoshi for the tip about javascript:)

Here's what RegexBuddy uses.
(\b(https?|ftp|file)://)?[-A-Za-z0-9+&##/%?=~_|!:,.;]+[-A-Za-z0-9+&##/%=~_|]
It matches these below (inside the ** ** marks):
**http://www.regexbuddy.com**
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/**
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/index.html**
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/index.html?source=library**
**http://www.regexbuddy.com/index.html?source=library#copyright**
You can download RegexBuddy at http://www.regexbuddy.com/download.html.

Mathias Bynens has a great article on the best comparison of a lot of regular expressions: In search of the perfect URL validation regex
The best one posted is a little long, but it matches just about anything you can throw at it.
JavaScript version
/^(?:(?:(?:https?|ftp):)?\/\/)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?#)?(?:(?!(?:10|127)(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!(?:169\.254|192\.168)(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z0-9\u00a1-\uffff][a-z0-9\u00a1-\uffff_-]{0,62})?[a-z0-9\u00a1-\uffff]\.)+(?:[a-z\u00a1-\uffff]{2,}\.?))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:[/?#]\S*)?$/i
PHP version (uses % symbol as delimiter)
%^(?:(?:(?:https?|ftp):)?\/\/)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?#)?(?:(?!(?:10|127)(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!(?:169\.254|192\.168)(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z0-9\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}][a-z0-9\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}_-]{0,62})?[a-z0-9\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]\.)+(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,}\.?))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:[/?#]\S*)?$%iuS

With regard to eyelidness' answer post that reads "This is based on my reading of the URI specification.": Thanks Eyelidness, yours is the perfect solution I sought, as it is based on the URI spec! Superb work. :)
I had to make two amendments. The first to get the regexp to match IP address URLs correctly in PHP (v5.2.10) with the preg_match() function.
I had to add one more set of parenthesis to the line above "IP Address" around the pipes:
)|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}(?#
Not sure why.
I have also reduced the top level domain minimum length from 3 to 2 letters to support .co.uk and similar.
Final code:
/^(https?|ftp):\/\/(?# protocol
)(([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+(?# username
)(:([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+)?(?# password
)#)?(?# auth requires #
)((([a-z0-9]\.|[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]\.)*(?# domain segments AND
)[a-z][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9](?# top level domain OR
)|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}(?#
)(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])(?# IP address
))(:\d+)?(?# port
))(((\/+([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)*(?# path
)(\?([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)(?# query string
)?)?)?(?# path and query string optional
)(#([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?(?# fragment
)$/i
This modified version was not checked against the URI specification so I can't vouch for it's compliance, it was altered to handle URLs on local network environments and two digit TLDs as well as other kinds of Web URL, and to work better in the PHP setup I use.
As PHP code:
define('URL_FORMAT',
'/^(https?):\/\/'. // protocol
'(([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+'. // username
'(:([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+)?'. // password
'#)?(?#'. // auth requires #
')((([a-z0-9]\.|[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]\.)*'. // domain segments AND
'[a-z][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]'. // top level domain OR
'|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}'.
'(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])'. // IP address
')(:\d+)?'. // port
')(((\/+([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)*'. // path
'(\?([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)'. // query string
'?)?)?'. // path and query string optional
'(#([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?'. // fragment
'$/i');
Here is a test program in PHP which validates a variety of URLs using the regex:
<?php
define('URL_FORMAT',
'/^(https?):\/\/'. // protocol
'(([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+'. // username
'(:([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;\?&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})+)?'. // password
'#)?(?#'. // auth requires #
')((([a-z0-9]\.|[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]\.)*'. // domain segments AND
'[a-z][a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]'. // top level domain OR
'|((\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}'.
'(\d|[1-9]\d|1\d{2}|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])'. // IP address
')(:\d+)?'. // port
')(((\/+([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)*'. // path
'(\?([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)'. // query string
'?)?)?'. // path and query string optional
'(#([a-z0-9$_\.\+!\*\'\(\),;:#&=-]|%[0-9a-f]{2})*)?'. // fragment
'$/i');
/**
* Verify the syntax of the given URL.
*
* #access public
* #param $url The URL to verify.
* #return boolean
*/
function is_valid_url($url) {
if (str_starts_with(strtolower($url), 'http://localhost')) {
return true;
}
return preg_match(URL_FORMAT, $url);
}
/**
* String starts with something
*
* This function will return true only if input string starts with
* niddle
*
* #param string $string Input string
* #param string $niddle Needle string
* #return boolean
*/
function str_starts_with($string, $niddle) {
return substr($string, 0, strlen($niddle)) == $niddle;
}
/**
* Test a URL for validity and count results.
* #param url url
* #param expected expected result (true or false)
*/
$numtests = 0;
$passed = 0;
function test_url($url, $expected) {
global $numtests, $passed;
$numtests++;
$valid = is_valid_url($url);
echo "URL Valid?: " . ($valid?"yes":"no") . " for URL: $url. Expected: ".($expected?"yes":"no").". ";
if($valid == $expected) {
echo "PASS\n"; $passed++;
} else {
echo "FAIL\n";
}
}
echo "URL Tests:\n\n";
test_url("http://localserver/projects/public/assets/javascript/widgets/UserBoxMenu/widget.css", true);
test_url("http://www.google.com", true);
test_url("http://www.google.co.uk/projects/my%20folder/test.php", true);
test_url("https://myserver.localdomain", true);
test_url("http://192.168.1.120/projects/index.php", true);
test_url("http://192.168.1.1/projects/index.php", true);
test_url("http://projectpier-server.localdomain/projects/public/assets/javascript/widgets/UserBoxMenu/widget.css", true);
test_url("https://2.4.168.19/project-pier?c=test&a=b", true);
test_url("https://localhost/a/b/c/test.php?c=controller&arg1=20&arg2=20", true);
test_url("http://user:password#localhost/a/b/c/test.php?c=controller&arg1=20&arg2=20", true);
echo "\n$passed out of $numtests tests passed.\n\n";
?>
Thanks again to eyelidness for the regex!

The post Getting parts of a URL (Regex) discusses parsing a URL to identify its various components. If you want to check if a URL is well-formed, it should be sufficient for your needs.
If you need to check if it's actually valid, you'll eventually have to try to access whatever's on the other end.
In general, though, you'd probably be better off using a function that's supplied to you by your framework or another library. Many platforms include functions that parse URLs. For example, there's Python's urlparse module, and in .NET you could use the System.Uri class's constructor as a means of validating the URL.

This might not be a job for regexes, but for existing tools in your language of choice. You probably want to use existing code that has already been written, tested, and debugged.
In PHP, use the parse_url function.
Perl: URI module.
Ruby: URI module.
.NET: 'Uri' class
Regexes are not a magic wand you wave at every problem that happens to involve strings.

This will match all URLs
with or without http/https
with or without www
...including sub-domains and those new top-level domain name extensions such as
.museum,
.academy,
.foundation
etc. which can have up to 63 characters (not just .com, .net, .info etc.)
(([\w]+:)?//)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?#)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,63}(:[\d]+)?(/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?
Because today maximum length of the available top-level domain name extension is 13 characters such as .international, you can change the number 63 in expression to 13 to prevent someone misusing it.
as javascript
var urlreg=/(([\w]+:)?\/\/)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?#)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,63}(:[\d]+)?(\/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?/;
$('textarea').on('input',function(){
var url = $(this).val();
$(this).toggleClass('invalid', urlreg.test(url) == false)
});
$('textarea').trigger('input');
textarea{color:green;}
.invalid{color:red;}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<textarea>http://www.google.com</textarea>
<textarea>http//www.google.com</textarea>
<textarea>googlecom</textarea>
<textarea>https://www.google.com</textarea>
Wikipedia Article: List of all internet top-level domains

Non-validating URI-reference Parser
For reference purposes, here's the IETF Spec: (TXT | HTML). In particular, Appendix B. Parsing a URI Reference with a Regular Expression demonstrates how to parse a valid regex. This is described as,
for an example of a non-validating URI-reference parser that will take any given string and extract the URI components.
Here's the regex they provide:
^(([^:/?#]+):)?(//([^/?#]*))?([^?#]*)(\?([^#]*))?(#(.*))?
As someone else said, it's probably best to leave this to a lib/framework you're already using.

^(http:\/\/www\.|https:\/\/www\.|http:\/\/|https:\/\/)?[a-z0-9]+([\-\.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*\.[a-z]{2,5}(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.*)?$
live demo: https://regex101.com/r/HUNasA/2
I have tested various expressions to match my requirements.
As a user I can hit browser search bar with following strings:
valid urls
https://www.google.com
http://www.google.com
http://google.com/
https://google.com/
www.google.com
google.com
https://www.google.com.ua
http://www.google.com.ua
http://google.com.ua
https://google.com.ua/
www.google.com.ua
google.com.ua
https://mail.google.com
http://mail.google.com
mail.google.com
invalid urls
http://google
https://google.c
google
google.
.google
.google.com
goole.c
...

The best regular expression for URL for me would be:
"(([\w]+:)?//)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-F\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?#)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,4}(:[\d]+)?(/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?"

Here is a good rule that covers all possible cases: ports, params and etc
/(https?:\/\/(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]{0,61}[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]{0,61}[a-z0-9])(:?\d*)\/?([a-z_\/0-9\-#.]*)\??([a-z_\/0-9\-#=&]*)/g

I wrote a little groovy version that you can run
it matches the following URLs (which is good enough for me)
public static void main(args) {
String url = "go to http://www.m.abut.ly/abc its awesome"
url = url.replaceAll(/https?:\/\/w{0,3}\w*?\.(\w*?\.)?\w{2,3}\S*|www\.(\w*?\.)?\w*?\.\w{2,3}\S*|(\w*?\.)?\w*?\.\w{2,3}[\/\?]\S*/ , { it ->
"woof${it}woof"
})
println url
}
http://google.com
http://google.com/help.php
http://google.com/help.php?a=5
http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/help.php
http://www.google.com?a=5
google.com?a=5
google.com/help.php
google.com/help.php?a=5
http://www.m.google.com/help.php?a=5 (and all its permutations)
www.m.google.com/help.php?a=5 (and all its permutations)
m.google.com/help.php?a=5 (and all its permutations)
The important thing for any URLs that don't start with http or www is that they must include a / or ?
I bet this can be tweaked a little more but it does the job pretty nice for being so short and compact... because you can pretty much split it in 3:
find anything that starts with http:
https?:\/\/w{0,3}\w*?\.\w{2,3}\S*
find anything that starts with www:
www\.\w*?\.\w{2,3}\S*
or find anything that must have a text then a dot then at least 2 letters and then a ? or /:
\w*?\.\w{2,3}[\/\?]\S*

I was not able to find the regex I was looking for so I modified a regex to fullfill my requirements, and apparently it seems to work fine now. My requirements were:
Match URLs w/o protocol (www.gooogle.com)
Match URLs with query parameters and path (http://subdomain.web-site.com/cgi-bin/perl.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2e)
Don't match URLs where there are not acceptable characters (e.g. "'£), for instance: (www.google.com/somthing"/somethingmore)
Here what I came up with, any suggestion is appreciated:
#Test
public void testWebsiteUrl(){
String regularExpression = "((http|ftp|https):\\/\\/)?[\\w\\-_]+(\\.[\\w\\-_]+)+([\\w\\-\\.,#?^=%&:/~\\+#]*[\\w\\-\\#?^=%&/~\\+#])?";
assertTrue("www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("https://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("https://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("mes.intnet.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("cse.uom.ac.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.com/path".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://subdomain.web-site.com/cgi-bin/perl.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2e".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.com/?queryparam=123".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.com/path?queryparam=123".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("www..dr.google".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("www:google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("https://www#.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("https://www.google.com\"".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("https://www.google.com'".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("http://www.google.com/path'".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("http://subdomain.web-site.com/cgi-bin/perl.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2e'".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("http://www.google.com/?queryparam=123'".matches(regularExpression));
assertFalse("http://www.google.com/path?queryparam=12'3".matches(regularExpression));
}

function validateURL(textval) {
var urlregex = new RegExp(
"^(http|https|ftp)\://([a-zA-Z0-9\.\-]+(\:[a-zA-Z0-9\.&%\$\-]+)*#)*((25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[1-9])\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[1-9]|0)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[1-9]|0)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}|[1-9]{1}[0-9]{1}|[0-9])|localhost|([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)*[a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.(com|edu|gov|int|mil|net|org|biz|arpa|info|name|pro|aero|coop|museum|[a-zA-Z]{2}))(\:[0-9]+)*(/($|[a-zA-Z0-9\.\,\?\'\\\+&%\$#\=~_\-]+))*$");
return urlregex.test(textval);
}
Matches
http://site.com/dir/file.php?var=moo | ftp://user:pass#site.com:21/file/dir
Non-Matches
site.com | http://site.com/dir//

function validateURL(textval) {
var urlregex = new RegExp(
"^(http|https|ftp)\://[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(:[a-zA-Z0-9]*)?/?([a-zA-Z0-9\-\._\?\,\'/\\\+&%\$#\=~])*$");
return urlregex.test(textval);
}
Matches
http://www.asdah.com/~joe | ftp://ftp.asdah.co.uk:2828/asdah%20asdah.gif | https://asdah.gov/asdh-ah.as

If you really search for the ultimate match, you probably find it on "A Good Url Regular Expression?".
But a regex that really matches all possible domains and allows anything that is allowed according to RFCs is horribly long and unreadable, trust me ;-)

I hope it's helpful for you...
^(http|https):\/\/+[\www\d]+\.[\w]+(\/[\w\d]+)?

Here is a regex I made which extracts the different parts from an URL:
^((?:(?:http|ftp|ws)s?|sftp):\/\/?)?([^:/\s.#?]+\.[^:/\s#?]+|localhost)(:\d+)?((?:\/\w+)*\/)?([\w\-.]+[^#?\s]+)?([^#]+)?(#[\w-]*)?$
((?:(?:http|ftp|ws)s?|sftp):\/\/?)?(group 1): extracts the protocol
([^:/\s.#?]+\.[^:/\s#?]+|localhost)(group 2): extracts the hostname
(:\d+)?(group 3): extracts the port number
((?:\/\w+)*\/)?([\w\-.]+[^#?\s]+)?(groups 4 & 5): extracts the path part
([^#]+)?(group 6): extracts the query part
(#[\w-]*)?(group 7): extracts the hash part
For every part of the regex listed above, you can remove the ending ? to force it (or add one to make it facultative). You can also remove the ^ at the beginning and $ at the end of the regex so it won't need to match the whole string.
See it on regex101.
Note: this regex is not 100% safe and may accept some strings which are not necessarily valid URLs but it does indeed validate some criterias. Its main goal was to extract the different parts of an URL not to validate it.

I've been working on an in-depth article discussing URI validation using regular expressions. It is based on RFC3986.
Regular Expression URI Validation
Although the article is not yet complete, I have come up with a PHP function which does a pretty good job of validating HTTP and FTP URLs. Here is the current version:
// function url_valid($url) { Rev:20110423_2000
//
// Return associative array of valid URI components, or FALSE if $url is not
// RFC-3986 compliant. If the passed URL begins with: "www." or "ftp.", then
// "http://" or "ftp://" is prepended and the corrected full-url is stored in
// the return array with a key name "url". This value should be used by the caller.
//
// Return value: FALSE if $url is not valid, otherwise array of URI components:
// e.g.
// Given: "http://www.jmrware.com:80/articles?height=10&width=75#fragone"
// Array(
// [scheme] => http
// [authority] => www.jmrware.com:80
// [userinfo] =>
// [host] => www.jmrware.com
// [IP_literal] =>
// [IPV6address] =>
// [ls32] =>
// [IPvFuture] =>
// [IPv4address] =>
// [regname] => www.jmrware.com
// [port] => 80
// [path_abempty] => /articles
// [query] => height=10&width=75
// [fragment] => fragone
// [url] => http://www.jmrware.com:80/articles?height=10&width=75#fragone
// )
function url_valid($url) {
if (strpos($url, 'www.') === 0) $url = 'http://'. $url;
if (strpos($url, 'ftp.') === 0) $url = 'ftp://'. $url;
if (!preg_match('/# Valid absolute URI having a non-empty, valid DNS host.
^
(?P<scheme>[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9+\-.]*):\/\/
(?P<authority>
(?:(?P<userinfo>(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)#)?
(?P<host>
(?P<IP_literal>
\[
(?:
(?P<IPV6address>
(?: (?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){6}
| ::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){5}
| (?: [0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){4}
| (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){3}
| (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){2}
| (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?:: [0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:
| (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::
)
(?P<ls32>[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}
| (?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}
(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)
)
| (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?:: [0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}
| (?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::
)
| (?P<IPvFuture>[Vv][0-9A-Fa-f]+\.[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:]+)
)
\]
)
| (?P<IPv4address>(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}
(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))
| (?P<regname>(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})+)
)
(?::(?P<port>[0-9]*))?
)
(?P<path_abempty>(?:\/(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:#]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)*)
(?:\?(?P<query> (?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:#\\/?]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*))?
(?:\#(?P<fragment> (?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:#\\/?]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*))?
$
/mx', $url, $m)) return FALSE;
switch ($m['scheme']) {
case 'https':
case 'http':
if ($m['userinfo']) return FALSE; // HTTP scheme does not allow userinfo.
break;
case 'ftps':
case 'ftp':
break;
default:
return FALSE; // Unrecognized URI scheme. Default to FALSE.
}
// Validate host name conforms to DNS "dot-separated-parts".
if ($m['regname']) { // If host regname specified, check for DNS conformance.
if (!preg_match('/# HTTP DNS host name.
^ # Anchor to beginning of string.
(?!.{256}) # Overall host length is less than 256 chars.
(?: # Group dot separated host part alternatives.
[A-Za-z0-9]\. # Either a single alphanum followed by dot
| # or... part has more than one char (63 chars max).
[A-Za-z0-9] # Part first char is alphanum (no dash).
[A-Za-z0-9\-]{0,61} # Internal chars are alphanum plus dash.
[A-Za-z0-9] # Part last char is alphanum (no dash).
\. # Each part followed by literal dot.
)* # Zero or more parts before top level domain.
(?: # Explicitly specify top level domains.
com|edu|gov|int|mil|net|org|biz|
info|name|pro|aero|coop|museum|
asia|cat|jobs|mobi|tel|travel|
[A-Za-z]{2}) # Country codes are exactly two alpha chars.
\.? # Top level domain can end in a dot.
$ # Anchor to end of string.
/ix', $m['host'])) return FALSE;
}
$m['url'] = $url;
for ($i = 0; isset($m[$i]); ++$i) unset($m[$i]);
return $m; // return TRUE == array of useful named $matches plus the valid $url.
}
This function utilizes two regexes; one to match a subset of valid generic URIs (absolute ones having a non-empty host), and a second to validate the DNS "dot-separated-parts" host name. Although this function currently validates only HTTP and FTP schemes, it is structured such that it can be easily extended to handle other schemes.

I use this regex:
((https?:)?//)?(([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+(:([\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})+)?#)?([\d\w][-\d\w]{0,253}[\d\w]\.)+[\w]{2,63}(:[\d]+)?(/([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)*(\?(&?([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})=?)*)?(#([-+_~.\d\w]|%[a-fA-f\d]{2,2})*)?
To support both:
http://stackoverflow.com
https://stackoverflow.com
And:
//stackoverflow.com

Here's a ready-to-go Java version from the Android source code. This is the best one I've found.
public static final Matcher WEB = Pattern.compile(new StringBuilder()
.append("((?:(http|https|Http|Https|rtsp|Rtsp):")
.append("\\/\\/(?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\\$\\-\\_\\.\\+\\!\\*\\'\\(\\)")
.append("\\,\\;\\?\\&\\=]|(?:\\%[a-fA-F0-9]{2})){1,64}(?:\\:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\\$\\-\\_")
.append("\\.\\+\\!\\*\\'\\(\\)\\,\\;\\?\\&\\=]|(?:\\%[a-fA-F0-9]{2})){1,25})?\\#)?)?")
.append("((?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9\\-]{0,64}\\.)+") // named host
.append("(?:") // plus top level domain
.append("(?:aero|arpa|asia|a[cdefgilmnoqrstuwxz])")
.append("|(?:biz|b[abdefghijmnorstvwyz])")
.append("|(?:cat|com|coop|c[acdfghiklmnoruvxyz])")
.append("|d[ejkmoz]")
.append("|(?:edu|e[cegrstu])")
.append("|f[ijkmor]")
.append("|(?:gov|g[abdefghilmnpqrstuwy])")
.append("|h[kmnrtu]")
.append("|(?:info|int|i[delmnoqrst])")
.append("|(?:jobs|j[emop])")
.append("|k[eghimnrwyz]")
.append("|l[abcikrstuvy]")
.append("|(?:mil|mobi|museum|m[acdghklmnopqrstuvwxyz])")
.append("|(?:name|net|n[acefgilopruz])")
.append("|(?:org|om)")
.append("|(?:pro|p[aefghklmnrstwy])")
.append("|qa")
.append("|r[eouw]")
.append("|s[abcdeghijklmnortuvyz]")
.append("|(?:tel|travel|t[cdfghjklmnoprtvwz])")
.append("|u[agkmsyz]")
.append("|v[aceginu]")
.append("|w[fs]")
.append("|y[etu]")
.append("|z[amw]))")
.append("|(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4]") // or ip address
.append("[0-9]|[0-1][0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9])\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]")
.append("|[0-1][0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9]|0)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1]")
.append("[0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9]|0)\\.(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[0-1][0-9]{2}")
.append("|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])))")
.append("(?:\\:\\d{1,5})?)") // plus option port number
.append("(\\/(?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\\;\\/\\?\\:\\#\\&\\=\\#\\~") // plus option query params
.append("\\-\\.\\+\\!\\*\\'\\(\\)\\,\\_])|(?:\\%[a-fA-F0-9]{2}))*)?")
.append("(?:\\b|$)").toString()
).matcher("");

For Python, this is the actual URL validating regex used in Django 1.5.1:
import re
regex = re.compile(
r'^(?:http|ftp)s?://' # http:// or https://
r'(?:(?:[A-Z0-9](?:[A-Z0-9-]{0,61}[A-Z0-9])?\.)+(?:[A-Z]{2,6}\.?|[A-Z0-9-]{2,}\.?)|' # domain...
r'localhost|' # localhost...
r'\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|' # ...or ipv4
r'\[?[A-F0-9]*:[A-F0-9:]+\]?)' # ...or ipv6
r'(?::\d+)?' # optional port
r'(?:/?|[/?]\S+)$', re.IGNORECASE)
This does both ipv4 and ipv6 addresses as well as ports and GET parameters.
Found in the code here, Line 44.

This one works for me very well. (https?|ftp)://(www\d?|[a-zA-Z0-9]+)?\.[a-zA-Z0-9-]+(\:|\.)([a-zA-Z0-9.]+|(\d+)?)([/?:].*)?

For convenience here's a one-liner regexp for URL's that will also match localhost where you're more likely to have ports than .com or similar.
(http(s)?:\/\/.)?(www\.)?[-a-zA-Z0-9#:%._\+~#=]{2,256}(\.[a-z]{2,6}|:[0-9]{3,4})\b([-a-zA-Z0-9#:%_\+.~#?&\/\/=]*)

I found the following Regex for URLs, tested successfully with 500+ URLs:
/\b(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)(?:\S+(?::\S*)?#)?(?:(?!10(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!127(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!169\.254(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!192\.168(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}0-9]+)*(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}-\x{ffff}]{2,})))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:\/[^\s]*)?\b/gi
I know it looks ugly, but the good thing is that it works. :)
Explanation and demo with 581 random URLs on regex101.
Source: In search of the perfect URL validation regex

To Match a URL there are various option and it depend on you requirement.
below are few.
_(^|[\s.:;?\-\]<\(])(https?://[-\w;/?:#&=+$\|\_.!~*\|'()\[\]%#,☺]+[\w/#](\(\))?)(?=$|[\s',\|\(\).:;?\-\[\]>\)])_i
#\b(([\w-]+://?|www[.])[^\s()<>]+(?:\([\w\d]+\)|([^[:punct:]\s]|/)))#iS
And there is a link which gives you more than 10 different variations of validation for URL.
https://mathiasbynens.be/demo/url-regex

I tried to formulate my version of url. My requirement was to capture instances in a String where possible url can be cse.uom.ac.mu - noting that it is not preceded by http nor www
String regularExpression = "((((ht{2}ps?://)?)((w{3}\\.)?))?)[^.&&[a-zA-Z0-9]][a-zA-Z0-9.-]+[^.&&[a-zA-Z0-9]](\\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3})";
assertTrue("www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("http://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("https://www.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("https://www.google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.com".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.co.uk".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("google.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("mes.intnet.mu".matches(regularExpression));
assertTrue("cse.uom.ac.mu".matches(regularExpression));
//cannot contain 2 '.' after www
assertFalse("www..dr.google".matches(regularExpression));
//cannot contain 2 '.' just before com
assertFalse("www.dr.google..com".matches(regularExpression));
// to test case where url www must be followed with a '.'
assertFalse("www:google.com".matches(regularExpression));
// to test case where url www must be followed with a '.'
//assertFalse("http://wwwe.google.com".matches(regularExpression));
// to test case where www must be preceded with a '.'
assertFalse("https://www#.google.com".matches(regularExpression));

whats wrong with plain and simple FILTER_VALIDATE_URL ?
$url = "http://www.example.com";
if(!filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL))
{
echo "URL is not valid";
}
else
{
echo "URL is valid";
}
I know its not the question exactly but it did the job for me when I needed to validate urls so thought it might be useful to others who come across this post looking for the same thing

What is configuartion required to get data from object storage by SWIFT in Spark

I go through document but still it is very much confusing how to get data from swift.
I configured swift in my one linux machine. By using below command I am able to get container list,
swift -A https://acc.objectstorage.softlayer.net/auth/v1.0/ -U
username -K passwordkey list
I seen many blog for blumix(https://console.ng.bluemix.net/docs/services/AnalyticsforApacheSpark/index-gentopic1.html#genTopProcId2) and written the below code
sc.textFile("swift://container.myacct/file.xml")
I am looking to integrate in java spark. Where need to configure object storage credential in java code. Is there any sample code or blog?

This notebook illustrates a number of ways to load data using the Scala language. Scala runs on the JVM. Java and Scala classes can be freely mixed, no matter whether they reside in different projects or in the same. Looking at the mechanics of how Scala code interacts with Openstack Swift object storage should help guide you to craft a Java equivalent.
From the above notebook, here are some steps illustrating how to configure and extract data from an Openstack Swift Object Storage instance using the Stocator library using the Scala language. The swift url decomposes into:
swift2d :// container . myacct / filename.extension
^ ^ ^ ^
stocator name of namespace object storage
protocol container filename
Imports
import org.apache.spark.SparkContext
import scala.util.control.NonFatal
import play.api.libs.json.Json
val sqlctx = new SQLContext(sc)
val scplain = sqlctx.sparkContext
Sample Creds
// #hidden_cell
var credentials = scala.collection.mutable.HashMap[String, String](
"auth_url"->"https://identity.open.softlayer.com",
"project"->"object_storage_3xxxxxx3_xxxx_xxxx_xxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxx",
"project_id"->"6xxxxxxxxxx04fxxxxxxxxxx6xxxxxx7",
"region"->"dallas",
"user_id"->"cxxxxxxxxxxaxxxxxxxxxx1xxxxxxxxx",
"domain_id"->"cxxxxxxxxxxaxxyyyyyyxx1xxxxxxxxx",
"domain_name"->"853255",
"username"->"Admin_cxxxxxxxxxxaxxxxxxxxxx1xxxxxxxxx",
"password"->"""&M7372!FAKE""",
"container"->"notebooks",
"tenantId"->"undefined",
"filename"->"file.xml"
)
Helper Method
def setRemoteObjectStorageConfig(name:String, sc: SparkContext, dsConfiguration:String) : Boolean = {
try {
val result = scala.util.parsing.json.JSON.parseFull(dsConfiguration)
result match {
case Some(e:Map[String,String]) => {
val prefix = "fs.swift2d.service." + name
val hconf = sc.hadoopConfiguration
hconf.set("fs.swift2d.impl","com.ibm.stocator.fs.ObjectStoreFileSystem")
hconf.set(prefix + ".auth.url", e("auth_url") + "/v3/auth/tokens")
hconf.set(prefix + ".tenant", e("project_id"))
hconf.set(prefix + ".username", e("user_id"))
hconf.set(prefix + ".password", e("password"))
hconf.set(prefix + "auth.method", "keystoneV3")
hconf.set(prefix + ".region", e("region"))
hconf.setBoolean(prefix + ".public", true)
println("Successfully modified sparkcontext object with remote Object Storage Credentials using datasource name " + name)
println("")
return true
}
case None => println("Failed.")
return false
}
}
catch {
case NonFatal(exc) => println(exc)
return false
}
}
Load the Data
val setObjStor = setRemoteObjectStorageConfig("sparksql", scplain, Json.toJson(credentials.toMap).toString)
val data_rdd = scplain.textFile("swift2d://notebooks.sparksql/" + credentials("filename"))
data_rdd.take(5)

set MaxRecords with Java Jacob library

I'm trying to make use of Windows Search by using java Jacob library. but I'm having troubles to specify the maxRecords option to limit the number of rows get back.
I'm trying to do it by using this line:
Dispatch.put(connection, "MaxRecords", new Variant(10));
After setting up the connection:
connection = new Dispatch("ADODB.Connection");
Dispatch.call(connection, "Open", "Provider=Search.CollatorDSO;Extended Properties='Application=Windows';");
//-------> error in the following line <-------
Dispatch.put(connection, "MaxRecords", new Variant(10));
results = Dispatch.call(connection, "Execute",
"SELECT System.ItemName, System.DateModified " +
"FROM SystemIndex " +
"WHERE Directory='file:C:/my/folder/path' AND Contains('a')").toDispatch();
while (!Dispatch.get(results, "EOF").getBoolean()) {
Dispatch fields = Dispatch.get(results, "Fields").toDispatch();
String filename = Dispatch.get(Dispatch.call(fields, "Item", new Integer(0)).toDispatch(), "Value").toString();
String filedate = Dispatch.get(Dispatch.call(fields, "Item", new Integer(1)).toDispatch(), "Value").toString();
list.put(filename, filedate);
Dispatch.call(results, "MoveNext");
}
What am I doing wrong?
There's no error on compilation but on executing I get this message:
com.jacob.com.ComFailException: A COM exception has been encountered:
At Invoke of: MaxRecords
Description: 80020007 / No named arguments.
...
Internal Server Error (500) - The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request
And this one when accessing through my restful by URL:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request
You can get technical details here.
Please continue your visit at our home page.
Everything works fine without that line.

According to the docs, the Connection object does not have a MaxRecords property. I think you'd want to set MaxRecords on a RecordSet object.
EDIT:
I haven't tried these, but would try along the following lines:
connection = new Dispatch("ADODB.Connection");
Dispatch.call(connection, "Open", "Provider=Search.CollatorDSO;Extended Properties='Application=Windows';");
String sql = "SELECT System.ItemName, System.DateModified " +
"FROM SystemIndex " +
"WHERE Directory='file:C:/my/folder/path' AND Contains('a')"
recordSet = new Dispatch("ADODB.Recordset");
Dispatch.put(recordSet, "MaxRecords", new Variant(10));
Dispatch.call(recordSet, "Open", sql, connection);
while (!Dispatch.get(recordSet, "EOF").getBoolean()) {
...
}

How to query eXist db from java

I'm trying to query a file based on the eXist database.
Through a simple function to display the contents of the file, no problem:
XMLResource res = (XMLResource) col.getResource(resourceName);
System.out.println(res.getContent());
But when I try against making a request impossible.
String xQuery = "for $x in doc(\"" + resourceName + "\")." + "return data($x).";
ResourceSet result = service.query(xQuery);
ResourceIterator i = result.getIterator();
I have the following errors:
Exception in thread "main" org.xmldb.api.base.XMLDBException: Failed to invoke method queryP in class org.exist.xmlrpc.RpcConnection: org.exist.xquery.StaticXQueryException: exerr:ERROR org.exist.xquery.XPathException: exerr:ERROR err:XPST0003 in line 1, column 58: unexpected token: .
at org.exist.xmldb.RemoteXPathQueryService.query(RemoteXPathQueryService.java:114)
at org.exist.xmldb.RemoteXPathQueryService.query(RemoteXPathQueryService.java:71)
at ExistAccess.main(ExistAccess.java:45)
Caused by: org.apache.xmlrpc.XmlRpcException: Failed to invoke method queryP in class org.exist.xmlrpc.RpcConnection: org.exist.xquery.StaticXQueryException: exerr:ERROR org.exist.xquery.XPathException: exerr:ERROR err:XPST0003 in line 1, column 58: unexpected token: .
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcStreamTransport.readResponse(XmlRpcStreamTransport.java:197)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcStreamTransport.sendRequest(XmlRpcStreamTransport.java:156)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcHttpTransport.sendRequest(XmlRpcHttpTransport.java:143)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcSunHttpTransport.sendRequest(XmlRpcSunHttpTransport.java:69)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcClientWorker.execute(XmlRpcClientWorker.java:56)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcClient.execute(XmlRpcClient.java:167)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcClient.execute(XmlRpcClient.java:158)
at org.apache.xmlrpc.client.XmlRpcClient.execute(XmlRpcClient.java:147)
at org.exist.xmldb.RemoteXPathQueryService.query(RemoteXPathQueryService.java:99)
... 2 more
[B#105081caorg.apache.xmlrpc.XmlRpcException: Failed to invoke method queryP in class org.exist.xmlrpc.RpcConnection: org.exist.xquery.StaticXQueryException: exerr:ERROR org.exist.xquery.XPathException: exerr:ERROR err:XPST0003 in line 1, column 58: unexpected token: .
I checked all my .jar file, and all of them are present... I really need help ! Thanks in advance!

Your query:
String xQuery = "for $x in doc(\"" + resourceName + "\")." + "return data($x).";
The core of the error:
err:XPST0003 in line 1, column 58: unexpected token: .
As the error message states, eXist-db recognizes an error with the "."; this period/dot is invalid XQuery. Remove the dot from the query, and you should be fine. The query text itself should look like this:
for $x in doc("/db/mycollection/mydocument.xml") return data($x)
Also, it appears your FLWOR loop is iterating over a single item - the resource. Therefore, the FLWOR is extraneous. You could refactor this as:
data(doc("/db/mycollection/mydocument.xml"))

I think you string concat make this issue, why not try to add a space after ".". Change your code like
String xQuery = "for $x in doc(\"" + resourceName + "\"). " + "return data($x).";

Strange output from FuseESB

I am working on parsing the request.
I developed route in Java for parsing incoming request.
I am using Camel 2.9 with FuseESB 7.0.1.0.84.
I used simple(“{body}”).getText() to fetch incoming request as per Camel Manual
So I am checking the incoming request by using the code as:
if (xmlStringToParse == null || xmlStringToParse.equals("") || xmlStringToParse.equals("${body}")) {
parsedXMLPath = "<error>Incoming request is as folows:"
+ "\nValue of xmlStringToParse: " + xmlStringToParse
+ "\n xmlStringToParse is empty: " + (xmlStringToParse.equals(""))
+ "\n xmlStringToParse equals ${body}: " + (xmlStringToParse.equals("${body}"))
+ "\nAgain checking incoming request:\n" + xmlStringToParse
+ "</error>";
}
Where xmlStringToParse = simple(“${body}”).getText()
The strange outcoming observed:
Value of xmlStringToParse is changed in just one line from soap request to "". Also “xmlStringToParse equals ${body} “ is printed as “xmlStringToParse equals” without printing ${body}. ${body} is not printed in logs.
You can find the log output follows:
<error>
Value of xmlStringToParse: <somesoapRequest>
xmlStringToParse is empty: false
xmlStringToParse equals : true
Again checking incoming request:
</error>
Can anyone tell me how to solve this issue and the reason for this strange behavior?

I used simple(“{body}”).getText() to fetch incoming request as per Camel Manual
Where did you see that? Do you have a link?
You should get the message body in another way than what you do, such as
String body = exchange.getIn().getBody(String.class);
Or if you use bean parameter binding, you can bind the message body and just declare the parameter to be of String type
public void foo(String body) {
...
}
See more details at the Camel docs such at: http://camel.apache.org/bean-binding.html