parse_url Parse a URL and return its components arrayparse_url stringurl This function returns an associative array returning any of the various components of the URL that are present. This includes the scheme - e.g. http host port user pass path query - after the question mark ? fragment - after the hashmark # This function is not meant to validate the given URL, it only breaks it up into the above listed parts. Partial urls are also accepted, parse_url tries its best to parse them correctly. $ php -r 'print_r( parse_url("http://username:password@hostname/path?arg=value#anchor"));' Array ( [scheme] => http [host] => hostname [user] => username [pass] => password [path] => /path [query] => arg=value [fragment] => anchor ) $ php -r 'print_r( parse_url("http://invalid_host..name/"));' Array ( [scheme] => http [host] => invalid_host..name [path] => / ) See also pathinfo, parse_str, dirname, and basename.