Sometimes, we want to check if a URL exists via PHP.
In this article, we’ll look at how to check if a URL exists via PHP.
How to check if a URL exists via PHP?
To check if a URL exists via PHP, we can use the get_headers function.
For instance, we write
$file = "http://www.example.com/somefile.jpg";
$file_headers = @get_headers($file);
if (!$file_headers || $file_headers[0] == "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found") {
$exists = false;
} else {
$exists = true;
}
to call get_headers with the $file URL to get the file headers if they exist.
We use @ to suppress warnings.
Then we check !$file_headers || $file_headers[0] == "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found" to get if the file doesn’t exist.
Conclusion
To check if a URL exists via PHP, we can use the get_headers function.
