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PHP: how to grab an URL out of a chunk of text?

Answer 1

+2 A:

configurator 2009-03-11 18:53:48

What about digits or other valid characters?

Gumbo 2009-03-11 19:01:18

OK, so that's the regex. How do I actually apply it to my chunk-of-text variable? Am I using regex, or preg_replace, or what? (I did not say I was useless with regex for nothing...)

Eileen 2009-03-11 19:01:39

I don't know php yet, sorry.

configurator 2009-03-11 19:02:51

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I’ll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems...

configurator 2009-03-11 19:03:44

HA! My thought is usually, "Oh crap, maybe this needs a regular expression"

Eileen 2009-03-11 19:08:29

I don't think that this expression will handle query parameters properly.

Boden 2009-03-11 19:11:15

@Boden: Why not?

configurator 2009-03-13 03:20:09

Answer 2

+2 A:

Even I want one... Check the first link in the search result.Its pretty old!

and BTW look at the RHS.. we have similar questions. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/341942/recognize-url-in-plain-text http://stackoverflow.com/questions/635247/regex-for-url-and-image-within-a-text-or-html

Shoban 2009-03-11 18:56:00

Wow, actually that's the first time I see someone who is not getting bashed for posting a Google link.

Tomalak 2009-03-11 19:12:22

@Tomalak .. I have seen people shouting for not using google search! Show me the question which you are talking about. I want to see ;-)

Shoban 2009-03-11 19:27:25

Answer 3

A:

There are regular expressions that match valid URLs. For example the the complete regular expression for URLs, that’s derived from the grammar definition of URLs.

But it’s better to explicitly declare those than trying to find them. Because there are some situations in which it cannot be distinguished, if some characters are part of the URL or just text.

Gumbo 2009-03-11 19:00:34

Answer 4

+1 A:

OK, this question here (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/635247/regex-for-url-and-image-within-a-text-or-html) has a baffling title, but a helpful answer at the bottom. At least, it works for me and my cases!

$text = preg_replace('@(http://([\w-.]+)+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_.]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@', 
                 '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $text);

Eileen 2009-03-11 19:07:30

But just in your case. URLs like `http://example.com/foo-bar` or `http://example.com/foo#bar` are not matched.

Gumbo 2009-03-11 19:17:40

@Eileen: Hm... The "helpful answer at the bottom" has been voted -1. This is at least a hint that it could be flawed.

Tomalak 2009-03-11 19:20:46

True, but as I said it works for all of my cases, AND except for Boden it the only answer in all of the proposed answers that actually shows how to perform the replacement in PHP. Giving me complicated (but perfect!) regex is useless without the PHP to make it work.

Eileen 2009-03-11 20:46:13

Answer 5

+1 A:

Look at the preg_replace function. So something like this:

$regex_url = "((https?|ftp|gopher|telnet|file|notes|ms-help):((//)|(\\\\))+[\w\d:#@%/;$()~_?\+-=\\\.&]*)";

preg_replace($regex_url, '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $your_input_string);

Regular expression for URL taken from: http://www.geekzilla.co.uk/view2D3B0109-C1B2-4B4E-BFFD-E8088CBC85FD.htm

Boden 2009-03-11 19:08:02

Answer 6

A:

just to add some info ... check this class on phpclass.org, will solve ur problem ... this class will find the links and will convert them as well ...

http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/6114.html

2010-04-02 14:11:05

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PHP: how to grab an URL out of a chunk of text?

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