How to verify if a String in Java is a valid URL

Question

How can I check if a string is a URL in Java?

Answer 1

This function validates a URL, and returns true (valid URL) or false (invalid URL).

public static boolean isURL(String url) {
    try {
        new URL(url);
        return true;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        return false;
    }
}

Be sure to import java.net.URL;

Answer 2

You can try to create a java.net.URL object out of it. If it is not a proper URL, a MalformedURLException will be thrown.