PHP Regex to get YouTube Video ID

In PHP, you can extract YouTube video IDs from URLs using the parse_url() and parse_str() functions or regular expressions. The parsing approach is more reliable for standard YouTube URLs.

Using parse_url() and parse_str()

The most straightforward method uses built-in PHP functions to parse the URL query parameters −

<?php
    $url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX96I7PO8YU";
    parse_str(parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY), $my_array);
    echo $my_array['v'];
?>

VX96I7PO8YU

The parse_url() function extracts the query string, while parse_str() converts it into an associative array where the video ID is stored in the 'v' key.

Using Regular Expression

For more complex YouTube URL formats, regex provides better flexibility −

<?php
    function getYouTubeVideoId($url) {
        $pattern = '/(?:youtube\.com\/watch\?v=|youtu\.be\/)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)/';
        preg_match($pattern, $url, $matches);
        return isset($matches[1]) ? $matches[1] : null;
    }
    
    $url1 = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX96I7PO8YU";
    $url2 = "https://youtu.be/VX96I7PO8YU";
    
    echo "Standard URL: " . getYouTubeVideoId($url1) . "<br>";
    echo "Short URL: " . getYouTubeVideoId($url2);
?>

Standard URL: VX96I7PO8YU
Short URL: VX96I7PO8YU

Comparison

Conclusion

Use parse_url() and parse_str() for standard YouTube URLs, or regex for handling multiple URL formats. Both methods effectively extract the 11-character video ID needed for YouTube integration.