preg_match('/(?:http[s]*\:\/\/)*(.*?)\.(?=[^\/]*\..{2,5})/i', $url, $match);
Just read $match[1]
It works perfectly with this list of urls
$url = array(
'http://www.domain.com', // www
'http://domain.com', // --nothing--
'https://domain.com', // --nothing--
'www.domain.com', // www
'domain.com', // --nothing--
'www.domain.com/some/path', // www
'http://sub.domain.com/domain.com', // sub
'???????????????.????????.ua', // ??????????????? ;)
'????????.ua', // --nothing--
'http://sub-domain.domain.net/domain.net', // sub-domain
'sub-domain.third-Level_DomaIN.domain.uk.co/domain.net' // sub-domain
);
foreach ($url as $u) {
preg_match('/(?:http[s]*\:\/\/)*(.*?)\.(?=[^\/]*\..{2,5})/i', $u, $match);
var_dump($match);
}