Plain text link to HTML with a PHP function and regular expressions :: DesignWell

Plain text link to HTML with a PHP function and regular expressions

If you have ever wanted to turn a plain text link, http://www.smjdesign.com, into a “linked” HTML version, http://www.smjdesign.com, you can now. Pass the following function your entire text field and it will find all your links and return tagged HTML.

function replace_plain_text_link($plain_text) { $url_html = preg_replace( '/(?<!S)((http(s?):\/\/)|(www.))+([w.1-9\&=#?-~%;]+)/’, ‘<a href=”http$3://$4$5″>http$3://$4$5</a>’, $plain_text); return ($url_html); } echo replace_plain_text_link(”hi this is dummy text before http://www.smjdesign.com hi this is dummy text after”)

The majority of the above regular expression was not created by me. I however cannot locate the original programmer. It was posted on a message board I visited along with ftp and mailto options. If you can help, please comment.

If you have found this post valuable, please share it with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.