Parsing Youtube URLs

Question

I'm trying to get all Youtube video IDs from string like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg

Following to this answers I wrote code:

var re = /(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/watch(?:\.php)?\?.*v=)([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)/g,
    str = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg',
    match;

while (match = re.exec(str)) {
   if (match.index === re.lastIndex) {
      re.lastIndex++;
   }

   console.log(match[1]);
}

But console.log shows only last ID 97aiSGxmizg. What am I doing wrong?

How many matches do you expect? Do you also need to match `DOQsYk8cbnE` in `https://www.youtube.com watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE`? — Wiktor Stribiżew, Mar 21 '18 at 13:17
@WiktorStribiżew three matches: OovKTBO4aQs, DOQsYk8cbnE and 97aiSGxmizg — , Mar 21 '18 at 13:19
where you get this strange `str`? maybe you can ask for array instead? — apple apple, Mar 21 '18 at 13:20
if you are only getting youtube URLs, then why don't you just check for "v=" (some value) " " — Daniel Gale, Mar 21 '18 at 13:20
@WiktorStribiżew sorry, there's was a typo in `str`. Now it's ok, but code is still doesn't work as I want — , Mar 21 '18 at 13:21
@DanielGale in common case, youtube has many types of URLs, so I took this regex because it works for all URLs types — , Mar 21 '18 at 13:23
@mplungjan of course I can split string with spaces, but I suppose it is not optimal decision — , Mar 21 '18 at 13:26
@TroyHambleton your regexp is not correct. its matching spaces between them — Shrihari Balasubramani, Mar 21 '18 at 13:26
@ShrihariBalasubramani but it works well here https://regex101.com/r/Peu4Oq/1 — , Mar 21 '18 at 13:27
@ShrihariBalasubramani how can I update this regexp to make it work? https://regex101.com/r/Peu4Oq/2 — , Mar 21 '18 at 13:30
var re = /(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/watch(?:\.php)?\?[^ ]*v=)([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)/g; Please check my answer for more — Shrihari Balasubramani, Mar 21 '18 at 13:36
@TroyHambleton I don't think you are covering all the scenarios. YouTube URLs come in several flavors other than `v=` - While this question doesn't answer your question and is php related it does lists a few of the YouTube URL formats in the question itself: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7693218/youtube-i-d-parsing-for-new-url-formats such as `http://youtu.be/97aiSGxmizg` or `http://www.youtube.com/v/97aiSGxmizg` — Nope, Mar 21 '18 at 13:40

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 14:04

Assuming v=something, try this (regex from Extract parameter value from url using regular expressions)

var regex = /\?v=([a-z0-9\-]+)\&?/gi, matches = [], index=1;
urls = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg";
while (match = regex.exec(urls)) matches.push(match[index])
console.log(matches)

Asons · Answer 2 · 2018-03-21T15:19:43.290

Based on the posted string's format, v=id, one can do something as simple as split the string at space and the again, combined with reduce(), at v=, to get the successfully split'ed id's.

I also used an anonymous function (function(){...})(); to only have to run the split once.

Stack snippet

var str = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg';

var list = str.split(' ').reduce(function(r, e) {
  (function(i){
    if (i.length > 1) r.push(i[1]);
  })(e.split('v='));  
  return r;
}, []);

console.log(list);

As mentioned, if there are other formats, one can easily use a regex, e.g.

Stack snippet

var str = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg http://www.youtube.com/v/-wtIMTCHWuI http://youtu.be/-DOQsYk8cbnE';

var list = str.split(' ').reduce(function(r, e) {
  (function(i){
    if (i.length > 1) r.push(i[1]);
  })(e.split(/v=|v\/-|be\/-/));
  return r;
}, []);

console.log(list);

KyleFairns · Answer 3 · 2018-03-21T13:39:39.083

0

The capture group will only match the last match in that string.

Split the strings into an array and log them there:

var re = /(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/watch(?:\.php)?\?.*v=)([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)/g,
  str = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg',
  strs = str.split(' ');


strs.forEach((str) => {
  var match;
  while (match = re.exec(str)) {
    if (match.index === re.lastIndex) {
      re.lastIndex++;
    }
    console.log(match[1]);
  }
})

edited Mar 21 '18 at 13:39

answered Mar 21 '18 at 13:31

KyleFairns

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No need to split on space – mplungjan Mar 21 '18 at 14:49

score -1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 21 '18 at 14:51

-1

You regex is not correct.

The correct regex would be like this:

var re = /(?:https?:\/\/)?(?:youtu\.be\/|(?:www\.)?youtube\.com\/watch(?:\.php)?\?[^ ]*v=)([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)/g;

var str = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OovKTBO4aQs jiberish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQsYk8cbnE  jiberish a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aiSGxmizg'
console.log(str.match(re))

edited Mar 21 '18 at 14:51

mplungjan

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answered Mar 21 '18 at 13:29

Shrihari Balasubramani

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As you can see in the [mcve] I made from your answer, the result is not a list of IDs since you do not show the captures – mplungjan Mar 21 '18 at 14:51

Parsing Youtube URLs

4 Answers4