How to convert URLs in string into Links and Edit the URL while displaying?

[WorldBank]

I don't have good knowledge in PHP. I need help with:

Let's suppose a string:

"Why is sky blue? http:www.whyistheskyblue.com/whyisitsoblue/cansomebodymake_it_red"

Ok now for this string, I want to conver the URL mentioned in to link and at a same time I want the URL (since is quite long) be displayed as:

"Why is sky blue? http:www.whyistheskyblue.com/whyisitsob......"

How will that be possible using PHP. Please help me with short and easy PHP script to do so. Thanks...

[hsriat]

I could not understand what you wish to do. Can you please elaborate it?

[WorldBank]

I could not understand what you wish to do. Can you please elaborate it?

[PHP]

$string="The world is bright. Check this URL: http://bytes.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=3182222";
[/PHP]

Now I want to convert URL in $string into link. But replacement must be done in this way:

[HTML]
The world is bright. Check this URL: <a href="http://bytes.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=3182222">http://bytes.com/forum/newreply.php?......</a>
[/HTML]

How can I do this using PHP?

[r035198x]

First you need to split the string into the text and url parts.
You can then output an <a> tag using the url. The ... part is even easier since you just need to check if the url exceeds your predefined maximum allowable length and susbtring the url at maximum allowable length - 3 (the -3 is for the dots).

[hsriat]

or use &hellip; instead of three dots.

[WorldBank]

I want it to be done using something like ereg_replace. Spliting the string will not be easy when there many urls in string. So I want they be replaced easily please help.

[hsriat]

See if the User Contributed Notes in this page are of any use.

[nashruddin]

<?php
$text = "Why is sky blue? http://www.whyistheskyblue.com/whyisitsoblue/cansomebodymake_it_red. hello world!";
 
$new = preg_replace("/(http:\/\/[^\s]+)/", "<a href=\"$1\">$1</a>", $test);
 
print $new; /* will display $text with link to http://www.whyistheskyblue.com/... */
?>
 

[mkander]

Did you find a solution to this? I got the very same problem right now.

Regards,
Magnus

[davidc02]

This should do the trick:

[PHP]
$string = "Hello http://www.bytes.com world";

preg_match('/(http:\/\/[^\s]+)/', $string, $text);
$hypertext = "<a href=\"". $text[0] . "\">" . $text[0] . "</a>";
$newString = preg_replace('/(http:\/\/[^\s]+)/', $hypertext, $string);

echo $newString; //will output Hello <a href="http://www.bytes.com">http://www.bytes.com</a> world

[/PHP]

[sitthykun]

thank davidc02