How to Validate a URL in PHP? [Easy]

Starting from PHP 5.2 we have bunch of built-in functions which makes it easier for programmers to perform small functions without writing up code for them,one of such function is filter_var(); , using filter_var().




 We can validate emails and URL's easily with just a few steps or you can say only 4-5 lines of code, so lets say you want to validate a URL using filter_var() you can do it as follow:

function checkurl($url)
  return filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL);
}​

To use this function simply use the following code :

    if(checkurl("http://www.google.com")) {
              echo 'URL is correct'; 
              //continue....            
            }else{
                echo 'URL is incorrect';
                //through an error!                
    }

Simple isn't? And if you don't want to use the complete function,you can simply use the filter_var("Your URL here!", FILTER_VALIDATE_URL); .

Comments are welcome, and once more you must have PHP >= 5.2.