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There's news on the URL validation front in JavaScript land! After all these years of cursing JavaScript for not having an easy way to validate URLs, there's a new method in town โ€” URL.canParse()!

URL.canParse('https://www.stefanjudis.com'); // true 
URL.canParse('www.stefanjudis.com'); // false

Hallelujah! URL.canParse() offers a quick way to figure out if a string is a valid URL. Can you use it today? Find up-to-date browser support information powered by MDN below. ๐Ÿ‘‡

MDN Compat Data (source)
Browser support info for canParse() static method
chromechrome_androidedgefirefoxfirefox_androidsafarisafari_iossamsunginternet_androidwebview_android
120120120115115171725.0120

URL.canParse() relies on the same algorithm to evaluate a valid URL as the URL() constructor.

So if the browser support above isn't working for you, could quickly polyfill canParse similar to how core-js does it or even write your own isUrlValid function.

function isUrlValid(string) {
  try {
    new URL(string);
    return true;
  } catch (err) {
    return false;
  }
}

isUrlValid('https://www.stefanjudis.com'); // true
isUrlValid('www.stefanjudis.com'); // false

Place the new URL() call in a helper function, check if it throws an exception and call it a day!

But what about parsing URLs? Could we remove the try/catch alltogether?

Apparently, there's also a new WHATWG URL.parse() method that ships in:

Unfortunately, the feature isn't documented on MDN when I updated this article.

In the end, the only question remaining is "What is a valid URL?". But I'll leave this one for another time โ€” it's a tough one.

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About Stefan Judis

Frontend nerd with over ten years of experience, freelance dev, "Today I Learned" blogger, conference speaker, and Open Source maintainer.

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