How to Extract a Video ID from a YouTube URL?

Youtube API: Extracting Video ID from URL

Introduction

When working with Youtube videos in web applications, it becomes necessary to extract the video ID from the URL to access its metadata and embed it. Youtube API does not provide a direct function for this task, so alternative methods must be employed.

Using Regular Expressions

One approach is to use regular expressions to parse the URL and identify the video ID. Here's a function written in PHP:

<code class="php">function youtube_id_from_url($url) {
    $pattern = '%^# Match any youtube URL
        (?:https?://)?  # Optional scheme. Either http or https
        (?:www\.)?      # Optional www subdomain
        (?:             # Group host alternatives
          youtu\.be/    # Either youtu.be,
        | youtube\.com  # or youtube.com
          (?:           # Group path alternatives
            /embed/     # Either /embed/
          | /v/         # or /v/
          | /watch\?v=  # or /watch\?v=
          )             # End path alternatives.
        )               # End host alternatives.
        ([\w-]{10,12})  # Allow 10-12 for 11 char youtube id.
        $%x';
    $result = preg_match($pattern, $url, $matches);
    if ($result) {
        return $matches[1];
    }
    return false;
}</code>

Youtube OEMBED Service

Another option is to utilize Youtube's OEMBED service, which provides additional information about the video, including its ID. Here's how to use it:

<code class="php">$url = 'http://youtu.be/NLqAF9hrVbY';
var_dump(json_decode(file_get_contents(sprintf('http://www.youtube.com/oembed?url=%s&format=json', urlencode($url)))));</code>

Additional Considerations

• The example regular expression supports URLs for videos, playlists, and channels.
• It handles various URL formats, including those with query parameters.
• Using OEMBED is a valid alternative, but the ID has to be extracted from the returned JSON response.
• Other coding languages will have their own approaches for parsing URLs and extracting video IDs.

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