$re = '/^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9+\-.]*:(?:\/\/(?:(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*@)?(?:\[(?:(?:(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){6}|::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){5}|(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){4}|(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,1}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){3}|(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,2}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){2}|(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,3}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:|(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,4}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::)(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))|(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,5}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}|(?:(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4}:){0,6}[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})?::)|[Vv][0-9A-Fa-f]+\.[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:]+)\]|(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)|(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)(?::[0-9]*)?(?:\/(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)*|\/(?:(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})+(?:\/(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)*)?|(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})+(?:\/(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)*|)(?:\?(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@\/?]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)?(?:\#(?:[A-Za-z0-9\-._~!$&\'()*+,;=:@\/?]|%[0-9A-Fa-f]{2})*)?$/';
$str = 'http://-ru.stackoverflow.-com/';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php