What are some recommended practices for handling URL validation and manipulation in PHP to avoid errors or unexpected behavior?

When handling URL validation and manipulation in PHP, it is important to use built-in functions like filter_var() with the FILTER_VALIDATE_URL filter to validate URLs. Additionally, use functions like parse_url() to extract different components of a URL safely. Avoid using regex for URL validation as it can be error-prone and lead to unexpected behavior. 

// Validate a URL using filter_var()
$url = "https://www.example.com";
if (filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL)) {
    echo "Valid URL";
} else {
    echo "Invalid URL";
}

// Manipulate a URL using parse_url()
$url = "https://www.example.com/path/to/page?query=string";
$parsed_url = parse_url($url);
echo $parsed_url['scheme']; // Output: https
echo $parsed_url['host']; // Output: www.example.com
echo $parsed_url['path']; // Output: /path/to/page
echo $parsed_url['query']; // Output: query=string

Keywords

URL validation URL manipulation PHP functions error handling unexpected behavior

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