Version: 1.0
Type: Function
Category: HTML
License: GNU General Public License
Description: I searched the net for a long time to find a bugless and short PHPfunction to easily link URLs. But most of the functions were either too long or they had two bugs:
1. When one puts the URL between single quotes (‘), there is an error if the string is put in a MySQL-database by the script after the function is executed (because strings are between single quotes there)
2. When one put a full stop or question mark after the URL, the full stop or question mark is linked too.
So I made my own function:
function link_urls($string) {
//change single to double quotes (only necessary if you work with databases)
$string = ereg_replace("'", """, $string);
//change full stops and question marks that don't need to be linked
$string = ereg_replace("? ", " question_mark ", $string);
$string = ereg_replace("?rn"," question_mark_new_line ", $string);
$string = ereg_replace(". ", " full_stop ", $string);
$string = ereg_replace(".rn"," full_stop_new_line ", $string);
$string = eregi_replace("((ftp://)|(http://)|(www))(([a-z0-9.-])*)(@)?(([a-z0-9.])*)(([:/])?)((([a-z0-9]*)(@?)/*)+([.a-z]{2,4}){1})?((??[a-z0-9=]*)?)((&[a-z0-9=]*)?)(([.a-z]){2,4})?", "<a href=" "> </a>", $string);
//change back dots and question marks
$string = ereg_replace(" full_stop_new_line ", ".rn", $string);
$string = ereg_replace(" full_stop", ".", $string);
$string = ereg_replace(" question_mark_new_line ", "?rn", $string);
$string = ereg_replace(" question_mark", "?", $string);
return $string;
}
