How to Create a Domain Name Validator in Python

The challenge

Create a domain name validator mostly compliant with RFC 1035, RFC 1123, and RFC 2181

The following rules apply:

• Domain name may contain subdomains (levels), hierarchically separated by . (period) character
• Domain name must not contain more than 127 levels, including top level (TLD)
• Domain name must not be longer than 253 characters (RFC specifies 255, but 2 characters are reserved for trailing dot and null character for root level)
• Level names must be composed out of lowercase and uppercase ASCII letters, digits and – (minus sign) character
• Level names must not start or end with – (minus sign) character
• Level names must not be longer than 63 characters
• Top level (TLD) must not be fully numerical

Additionally:

• Domain name must contain at least one subdomain (level) apart from TLD
• Top level validation must be naive – ie. TLDs nonexistent in IANA register are still considered valid as long as they adhere to the rules given above.

The validation function accepts a string with the full domain name and returns a boolean value indicating whether the domain name is valid or not.

Examples:

validate('aoms') == False
validate('andrewodendaal.com') == True
validate('amazon.com') == True
validate('AMAZON.COM') == True
validate('sub.amazon.com') == True
validate('amazon.com-') == False
validate('.amazon.com') == False
validate('[email protected]') == False
validate('127.0.0.1') == False

The solution in Python

Option 1:

import re

def validate(domain):
    return re.match('''
        (?=^.{,253}$)          # max. length 253 chars
        (?!^.+\.\d+$)          # TLD is not fully numerical
        (?=^[^-.].+[^-.]$)     # doesn't start/end with '-' or '.'
        (?!^.+(\.-|-\.).+$)    # levels don't start/end with '-'
        (?:[a-z\d-]            # uses only allowed chars
        {1,63}(\.|$))          # max. level length 63 chars
        {2,127}                # max. 127 levels
        ''', domain, re.X | re.I)

Option 2:

def validate(domain):
    print(domain)
    if len(domain) > 253 or len(domain) == 0:
        print(1)
        return False
    
    els = domain.split('.')
    if len(els) > 127 or len(els) < 2:
        print(2)
        return False
    
    for x in els:
        if len(x) > 63 or len(x) == 0:
            print(3)
            return False

        if not x[0].isalnum() or not x[-1].isalnum():
            print(4)
            return False

        for l in x:
            if (not all(ord(c) < 128 for c in l) or not l.isalnum()) and l != '-':
                print(5)
                return False

    if els[-1].isnumeric():
        return False
    
    print(True)
    return True

Option 3:

import re

def validLevel(lvl):
    return not bool(re.search(r'^-|-$', lvl)) and bool(re.match(r'[a-zA-Z0-9-]{1,63}$', lvl))

def validate(domain):
    lst = domain.split('.')
    return len(domain) <= 253 \
           and 2 <= len(lst) <= 127 \
           and not lst[-1].isdigit() \
           and all( validLevel(lvl) for lvl in lst )

Test cases to validate our solution

test.describe('Domain name validator tests')
test.expect(not validate('aoms')) 
test.expect(validate('andrewodendaal.com'))
test.expect(validate('amazon.com'))
test.expect(validate('AMAZON.COM'))
test.expect(validate('sub.amazon.com'))
test.expect(not validate('amazon.com-'))
test.expect(not validate('.amazon.com'))
test.expect(not validate('[email protected]'))
test.expect(not validate('127.0.0.1'))