Http and Https string Validation

url-string-validation.php

<?php 

// Checks a url string for http || https if its not there then http is applied
function validate_url_string( $url_string ) {
  
	$pattern = '/^(http:\/\/|https:\/\/)/';
	preg_match( $pattern, $url_string, $matches );
	$url_string = count( $matches ) > 0 ? $url_string : 'http://'.$url_string;

	return $url_string;
  
}