parse youtube video id using preg_match

I had to deal with this for a PHP class i wrote a few weeks ago and ended up with a regex that matches any kind of strings: With or without URL scheme, with or without subdomain, youtube.com URL strings, youtu.be URL strings and dealing with all kind of parameter sorting. You can check it out at GitHub or simply copy and paste the code block below:

/**
 *  Check if input string is a valid YouTube URL
 *  and try to extract the YouTube Video ID from it.
 *  @author  Stephan Schmitz <[email protected]>
 *  @param   $url   string   The string that shall be checked.
 *  @return  mixed           Returns YouTube Video ID, or (boolean) false.
 */        
function parse_yturl($url) 
{
    $pattern = '#^(?:https?://)?(?:www\.)?(?:youtu\.be/|youtube\.com(?:/embed/|/v/|/watch\?v=|/watch\?.+&v=))([\w-]{11})(?:.+)?$#x';
    preg_match($pattern, $url, $matches);
    return (isset($matches[1])) ? $matches[1] : false;
}

To explain the regex, here's a spilt up version:

/**
 *  Check if input string is a valid YouTube URL
 *  and try to extract the YouTube Video ID from it.
 *  @author  Stephan Schmitz <[email protected]>
 *  @param   $url   string   The string that shall be checked.
 *  @return  mixed           Returns YouTube Video ID, or (boolean) false.
 */        
function parse_yturl($url) 
{
    $pattern = '#^(?:https?://)?';    # Optional URL scheme. Either http or https.
    $pattern .= '(?:www\.)?';         #  Optional www subdomain.
    $pattern .= '(?:';                #  Group host alternatives:
    $pattern .=   'youtu\.be/';       #    Either youtu.be,
    $pattern .=   '|youtube\.com';    #    or youtube.com
    $pattern .=   '(?:';              #    Group path alternatives:
    $pattern .=     '/embed/';        #      Either /embed/,
    $pattern .=     '|/v/';           #      or /v/,
    $pattern .=     '|/watch\?v=';    #      or /watch?v=,    
    $pattern .=     '|/watch\?.+&v='; #      or /watch?other_param&v=
    $pattern .=   ')';                #    End path alternatives.
    $pattern .= ')';                  #  End host alternatives.
    $pattern .= '([\w-]{11})';        # 11 characters (Length of Youtube video ids).
    $pattern .= '(?:.+)?$#x';         # Optional other ending URL parameters.
    preg_match($pattern, $url, $matches);
    return (isset($matches[1])) ? $matches[1] : false;
}

Better use parse_url and parse_str to parse the URL and query string:

$subject = "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_AbfPXTKms&NR=1";
$url = parse_url($subject);
parse_str($url['query'], $query);
var_dump($query);

This regex grabs the ID from all of the various URLs I could find... There may be more out there, but I couldn't find reference of them anywhere. If you come across one this doesn't match, please leave a comment with the URL, and I'll try and update the regex to match your URL.

if (preg_match('%(?:youtube(?:-nocookie)?\.com/(?:[^/]+/.+/|(?:v|e(?:mbed)?)/|.*[?&]v=)|youtu\.be/)([^"&?/\s]{11})%i', $url, $match)) {
    $video_id = $match[1];
}

Here is a sample of the URLs this regex matches: (there can be more content after the given URL that will be ignored)

• http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/embed/dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/v/dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/e/dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/user/username#p/u/11/dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/sandalsResorts#p/c/54B8C800269D7C1B/0/dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ ...
• http://www.youtube.com/?feature=player_embedded&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ ...

It also works on the youtube-nocookie.com URL with the same above options.

It will also pull the ID from the URL in an embed code (both iframe and object tags)