Replacing Text link as link with preg_replace

Question

I seem to be having an issue replacing a text link with a link to the site posted, it isn\'t linking.

The code:

$status_text = preg_replace(\'#(\\A|[         


        

Answer 1

Here, try this:

$status_text = preg_replace('|([\w\d]*)\s?(https?://([\d\w\.-]+\.[\w\.]{2,6})[^\s\]\[\<\>]*/?)|i', '$1 $3', $status_text);
echo $status_text;

or to make it a little easer to read:

$m = '|([\w\d]*)\s?(https?://([\d\w\.-]+\.[\w\.]{2,6})[^\s\]\[\<\>]*/?)|i';
$r = '$1 $3';

$status_text = preg_replace($m,$r,$status_text);
echo $status_text;

EDIT -- Updating due to new info in the OP --

Your hashtag regex does not take into account hashes in URLs, so let's fix that... Also, you should match for URLs before matching for hash-tags or plus-tags because otherwise you will mess up the links you create for the hash-tags and plus-tags

$status_text = preg_replace('|(https?://([\d\w\.-]+\.[\w\.]{2,6})[^\s\]\[\<\>]*/?)|i', '$2', $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace('|\B#([\d\w_]+)|i', '$0', $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace('|\B\+([\d\w_]+)|i', '$0', $status_text);

Or to make it a little easier to read...

$match_href = '|(https?://([\d\w\.-]+\.[\w\.]{2,6})[^\s\]\[\<\>]*/?)|i';
$match_hash = '|\B#([\d\w_]+)|i';
$match_plus = '|\B\+([\d\w_]+)|i';
$replace_url = '$2';
$replace_tag = '$0';

$status_text = preg_replace($match_href, $replace_url, $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace($match_hash, $replace_tag, $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace($match_plus, $replace_tag, $status_text);

EDIT AGAIN -- Adding a URL that might be helpful --

You can test out regular expressions here: http://gskinner.com/RegExr/

ANOTHER EDIT

As per a comment/question, if you want to account for urls that lack the http protocol, use the following:

$status_text = preg_replace('|((https?://)?([\d\w\.-]+\.[\w\.]{2,6})[^\s\]\[\<\>]*/?)|i', '$3', $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace('|\B#([\d\w_]+)|i', '$0', $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace('|\B\+([\d\w_]+)|i', '$0', $status_text);

Or to make it a little easier to read...

$match_href = '|((https?://)?([\d\w\.-]+\.[\w\.]{2,6})[^\s\]\[\<\>]*/?)|i';
$match_hash = '|\B#([\d\w_]+)|i';
$match_plus = '|\B\+([\d\w_]+)|i';
$replace_url = '$3';
$replace_tag = '$0';

$status_text = preg_replace($match_href, $replace_url, $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace($match_hash, $replace_tag, $status_text);
$status_text = preg_replace($match_plus, $replace_tag, $status_text);

EXAMPLE USAGE

Input: (Text from DB -> $status_text)

Hi, this is an example. This is a url http://stackoverflow.com/ 
and this is a hash reference that we want to link to an internal 
post #AwesomePost123 and this one is a plus reference we want to 
link to an internal post +AwesomePost123 and finally an example 
of a url without the http protocol www.stackoverflow.com

Output: (After running through the regex)

Hi, this is an example. This is a url stackoverflow.com 
and this is a hash reference that we want to link to an internal 
post #AwesomePost123 and this one is a plus reference we want to 
link to an internal post +AwesomePost123 and finally an example 
of a url without the http protocol www.stackoverflow.com