BB Code Conversion

Question

I was using str_replace for other bbcodes, but I'm stuck with the url portion.

I need to convert:

[url=http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&q=brits+pub&near=Pasadena,+CA&fb=1&cid=0,0,17926180203917841249&sa=X&oi=local_result&resnum=1&ct=image]Brits[/url]

to

<a href="ttp://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&q=brits+pub&near=Pasadena,+CA&fb=1&cid=0,0,17926180203917841249&sa=X&oi=local_result&resnum=1&ct=image">Brits</a>

Answer 1

Why don't you take a look at other BBCode parsers?

Just replacing tags isn't sufficient anyways, since this can (and will) lead to incorrect markup.

Answer 2

There is actually a good SO question about this already: Best way to parse bbcode.

Also, using an already existing BBCode parser library is advisable to attempting to making your own.