Replace all URLs in text to clickable links in PHP

Question

I have a web application written with PHP. I wanted to find all URLs inside users comments and change them to clickable links. I searched many websites and pages and found t

Answer 1

function convert($input) {
   $pattern = '@(http(s)?://)?(([a-zA-Z])([-\w]+\.)+([^\s\.]+[^\s]*)+[^,.\s])@';
   return $output = preg_replace($pattern, '<a href="http$2://$3">$0</a>', $input);
}

demo

Answer 2

function convert($input) {
   $pattern = '@(http(s)?://)?(([a-zA-Z0-9])([-\w]+\.)+([^\s\.]+[^\s]*)+[^,.\s])@';
   return $output = preg_replace($pattern, '<a href="http$2://$3">$0</a>', $input);
}

This is an update of the @splash58 dude answer to handle the URL which starts with number instead of letter. Example is 11hub.net or 9gag.com

Thank you splash58 for the great answer!