php man page for parse_url

PARSE_URL(3)								 1							      PARSE_URL(3)

parse_url - Parse a URL and return its components

SYNOPSIS
       mixed parse_url (string	$url, [int  $component = -1])

DESCRIPTION
	This function parses a URL and returns an associative array containing any of the various components of the URL that are present.

	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(3) tries its best to parse them correctly.

PARAMETERS
	      o $url
		- The URL to parse. Invalid characters are replaced by _.

	      o $component
		-  Specify  one  of  PHP_URL_SCHEME,  PHP_URL_HOST,  PHP_URL_PORT,  PHP_URL_USER,  PHP_URL_PASS,  PHP_URL_PATH,  PHP_URL_QUERY	or
		PHP_URL_FRAGMENT  to  retrieve	just  a  specific  URL component as a string (except when PHP_URL_PORT is given, in which case the
		return value will be an integer).

RETURN VALUES
	On seriously malformed URLs, parse_url(3) may return FALSE.

	If the $component parameter is omitted, an associative array is returned. At least one element will be present within the array. Potential
       keys within this array are:

	      o$scheme - e.g. http

	      o$host

	      o$port

	      o$user

	      o$pass

	      o$path

	      o$query - after the question mark
		?

	      o$fragment - after the hashmark
		#

	If  the $component parameter is specified, parse_url(3) returns a string (or an integer, in the case of PHP_URL_PORT) instead of an array.
       If the requested component doesn't exist within the given URL, NULL will be returned.

CHANGELOG
       +--------+---------------------------------------------------+
       |Version |						    |
       |	|						    |
       |	|		     Description		    |
       |	|						    |
       +--------+---------------------------------------------------+
       | 5.4.7	|						    |
       |	|						    |
       |	|  Fixed host recognition when	scheme	is  omitted |
       |	| and a leading component separator is present.     |
       |	|						    |
       | 5.3.3	|						    |
       |	|						    |
       |	|  Removed  the E_WARNING that was emitted when URL |
       |	| parsing failed.				    |
       |	|						    |
       | 5.1.2	|						    |
       |	|						    |
       |	|	   Added the $component parameter.	    |
       |	|						    |
       +--------+---------------------------------------------------+
EXAMPLES
       Example #1

	      A parse_url(3) example

	      <?php
	      $url = 'http://username:password@hostname:9090/path?arg=value#anchor';

	      var_dump(parse_url($url));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_SCHEME));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_USER));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PASS));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PORT));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_PATH));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY));
	      var_dump(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_FRAGMENT));
	      ?>

	      The above example will output:

	      array(8) {
		["scheme"]=>
		string(4) "http"
		["host"]=>
		string(8) "hostname"
		["port"]=>
		int(9090)
		["user"]=>
		string(8) "username"
		["pass"]=>
		string(8) "password"
		["path"]=>
		string(5) "/path"
		["query"]=>
		string(9) "arg=value"
		["fragment"]=>
		string(6) "anchor"
	      }
	      string(4) "http"
	      string(8) "username"
	      string(8) "password"
	      string(8) "hostname"
	      int(9090)
	      string(5) "/path"
	      string(9) "arg=value"
	      string(6) "anchor"

       Example #2

	      A parse_url(3) example with missing scheme

	      <?php
	      $url = '//www.example.com/path?googleguy=googley';

	      // Prior to 5.4.7 this would show the path as "//www.example.com/path"
	      var_dump(parse_url($url));
	      ?>

	      The above example will output:

	      array(3) {
		["host"]=>
		string(15) "www.example.com"
		["path"]=>
		string(5) "/path"
		["query"]=>
		string(17) "googleguy=googley"
	      }

NOTES
       Note

	       This function doesn't work with relative URLs.

       Note

	       This function is intended specifically for the purpose of parsing URLs and not URIs. However, to comply with PHP's  backwards  com-
	      patibility  requirements	it makes an exception for the file:// scheme where triple slashes (file:///...) are allowed. For any other
	      scheme this is invalid.

SEE ALSO
       pathinfo(3), parse_str(3), http_build_query(3), http_build_url(3), dirname(3), basename(3), RFC 3986.

PHP Documentation Group 													      PARSE_URL(3)