Find URLs in Text, Make Links

Last updated on: July 15, 2012

<?php

// The Regular Expression filter
$reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";

// The Text you want to filter for urls
$text = "The text you want to filter goes here. http://google.com";

// Check if there is a url in the text
if(preg_match($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {

       // make the urls hyper links
       echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, "<a href="{$url[0]}">{$url[0]}</a> ", $text);

} else {

       // if no urls in the text just return the text
       echo $text;

}
?>

The basic function of this is to find any URLs in the block of text and turn them into hyperlinks. It will only find URLs if they are properly formatted, meaning they have a http, https, ftp or ftps.

Check out the comments below for more solutions.

Comments

David Moreen

# September 16, 2009

I want to thank you from the bottom of my little heart, I have been in search for this exact script for the past 6 months! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I would like to point out however that there was error but nothing I could not fix :D Assid from your code this is the code that I got to work for myself.

<?php
// The Regular Expression filter
$reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";

// The Text you want to filter for urls
$text = "The text you want to filter goes here. http://google.com&quot;;

// Check if there is a url in the text
if(preg_match($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {

       // make the urls hyper links
       echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, '<a href="'.$url[0].'" rel="nofollow">'.$url[0].'</a>', $text);

} else {

       // if no urls in the text just return the text
       echo $text;

}
?>

Again thank you very much!

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dinesh

Permalink to comment# January 5, 2012

great!!! ela

Dan Jasnowski

# September 19, 2009

This doesn’t work for 2 or more URLs.

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Glenn Gahnstedt

Permalink to comment# February 2, 2010

Try using a loop => solved my problem when getting the data via MySQL
Teddy

Permalink to comment# December 22, 2011
Add “g” to the end of the regexp to catch all instances.
```
/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/g
```

Vindesh Mohariya

# May 26, 2010

Find the Image URL using preg_match() syntax or something similar to extract JPG or PNG or GIF URLs from a mixed text and put them in an array or at last store the first url.

maybe some syntax which searchs for strings that are beginning with http and ending with jpg/png/gif..

i believe it can be done with preg_match()

Note: the text can be like that : $string =blablablabla”http://www.xxx.com/xxx.jpg”blablablabla

$matches = array();
preg_match_all(‘!http://.+\.(?:jpe?g|png|gif)!Ui’ , $string , $matches);

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Dev

# May 27, 2010

Thanks,

It works like charm!

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Wolandca

# August 26, 2010

public function formatUrlsInText($text){
            $reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";
            preg_match_all($reg_exUrl, $text, $matches);
            $usedPatterns = array();
            foreach($matches[0] as $pattern){
                if(!array_key_exists($pattern, $usedPatterns)){
                    $usedPatterns[$pattern]=true;
                    $text = str_replace  ($pattern, "<a href="{$pattern}" rel="nofollow">{$pattern}</a> ", $text);   
                }
            }
            return $text;            
}

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amitai

# August 29, 2010

This is my version based on previous examples… hope this helps someone trying to force links on www without the http…

simply call the function as follows:

$body = txt2link($body);

function txt2link($text){
	// force http: on www.
 	$text = ereg_replace( "www\.", "http://www.", $text );
	// eliminate duplicates after force
  	$text = ereg_replace( "http://http://www\.", "http://www.", $text );
  	$text = ereg_replace( "https://http://www\.", "https://www.", $text );
  
	// The Regular Expression filter
	$reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";
	// Check if there is a url in the text
	if(preg_match($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {
		   // make the urls hyper links
		   $text = preg_replace($reg_exUrl, '<a href="'.$url[0].'" rel="nofollow">'.$url[0].'</a>', $text);
	}    // if no urls in the text just return the text
		   return ($text);
}

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Benjamin

Permalink to comment# December 15, 2011

When using the above codes inside a loop (wherein bulleted lists are created that have text/links in them) I get a server error if there’s more than one list item with a url that needs to be converted. Any way to do this in a foreach?

Thanks!

James

# November 2, 2010

Cases that this won’t catch:
http://localhost/test
http://1.2.3.4/test

Also if you feed in
“http://www.google.co.uk/page is on the website http://www.google.co.uk/”
you will get some very mangled output, as when you search for “http://www.google.co.uk/” you will also match the text in the middle of the existing link for “http://www.google.co.uk/page”

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goyal

# January 19, 2011

your site is amazing. no bull shit. all good stuff. pls include my email id in ur permanent mailing list.

Reply ↓

James

# February 13, 2011

can that original script for finding urls be modifed to look for links ending with an .mp3 exstension?

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DanJenkins

# March 22, 2011

Thanks, working a charm!

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Miguel Mdz

# June 15, 2011

Great post. Just what I was looking for. I’m going to use it on my site.

Thanks.

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Seebz

# July 6, 2011

Another equivalent function that make better results : http://code.seebz.net/p/autolink-php/

There is the same in javascript : http://code.seebz.net/p/autolink-js/

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braz

# July 15, 2011

The domain name can be longer then 3 characters, e.g. http://cxid.info/

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omprakash

# July 21, 2011

Great trick for developing the regular expression.

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Petar Marinov

# August 5, 2011

I’ve changed it a little bit, cause it won’t work for more than one url. Besides THANK YOU very much for the help.

public static function url_to_link($text) {
            // The Regular Expression filter
            $reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";
            // Check if there is a url in the text
            if (preg_match_all($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {
                // make the urls hyper links            
                foreach($url[0] as $v){                
                    //current position of the searached url
                    $curpos = strpos($text,' '.$v)+1;
                    //delete the url                
                    $text = substr_replace($text,'', $curpos, strlen($v));
                    //insert the link
                    $text = substr_replace($text,''.$v.'', $curpos ,0);                
                }
                return $text;
            } 
            else {
                // if no urls in the text just return the text
                return $text;
            }
        }

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milad

# August 9, 2011

i really liked this preg :D

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chris

# October 4, 2011

is there a demo of this? i’ve been trying to put a url in a class on a div that will make the text in the div a link WIthout having to use the in the html markup. Is this overkill on unobtrusive css?

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Steve

# December 15, 2011

Hi guys

This way is much easier. The cost converts URLs in $Text to html hyper links:

if (preg_match(“/http/”, “$Text”) OR preg_match(“/www/”, “$Text”))
{
$ExplodeText = explode(” “, $Text);
foreach($ExplodeText as $Check)
{if (preg_match(“/http/”, “$Check”) OR preg_match(“/www/”, “$Check”)) {$Text = str_replace($Check , “$Check” , $Text);}}
}

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Steve

# December 15, 2011

Apologies, there was a mistake in the code I post above. Below is the corrected version:

if (preg_match(“/http/”, “$Text”) OR preg_match(“/www/”, “$Text”))
{
$Text = str_replace(” www” , ” http://www” , $Text);
$Explode = explode(” “, $Text);
foreach($Explode as $Check) {if (preg_match(“/http/”, “$Check”) OR preg_match(“/www/”, “$Check”)) {$Text = str_replace($Check , “$Check” , $Text);}}
}

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Nishchal Gautam

# March 2, 2012

please list my email id in your mailing lists i would like to be notified about all the stuffs discussed here thanks!

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youlweb

# March 7, 2012

Great regex, thankyou! Here’s a single preg_replace that doesn’t need a loop and catches both http:// or www.

$text = “check out my link http://mylink.com or http://www.otherlink.com works too”;

$reg_exUrl = “/((((http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/)|www\.)[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}(\/\S*)?)/”;

echo preg_replace( $reg_exUrl, “<a href=\"$1\">$1</a> “, $text );

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youlweb

Permalink to comment# March 8, 2012

Addendum: actually, it treats www. links as local links, so further work needs to be done on that.

codezer

# March 27, 2012

Hi, If the url has ‘%20′ how can I make it?

Example: http://www.lalala.com/%20text%20some.html

Can you help me?

Thank you

Regards

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Stewart

Permalink to comment# April 19, 2012

replace the %20 beforehand

Sumanta Kundu

# May 24, 2012

Thanks for this tutorial. I happy. It work… :)

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iKnowledge

# May 26, 2012

Can some on post or email me the COMPLETE SCRIPT FINALLY WHICH CAN FIND ALL URLS IN A PAGE AND HIGHLIGHT THEM AS LINKS

I am requesting as i do not know coding for my self as i am not into web-designing

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Vicky

# June 3, 2012

This is great article but it can’t handle certain situation so i modified it bit so check the article below that works great with possible all situation…

http://www.javaquery.com/2012/06/turn-urls-into-links-in-text-with.html

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Modi

# June 19, 2012

actualy everything is much easier)

$text=preg_replace("#(https?|ftp)://\S+[^\s.,>)\];'\"!?]#",'\',$text);

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Modi

# June 19, 2012

<?php


 $text=preg_replace("#(https?|ftp)://\S+[^\s.,>)\];'\"!?]#",'class="pun"><a href="\">\',$text); ?>

much easier than write a comment with code on this site XD

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Modi

# June 19, 2012

****, kk there should be “href=”\”>\” in the ancor tag

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Modi

# June 19, 2012

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr THIS IS THE LINK 4 SOLUTION

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Hisamitsu

Permalink to comment# October 3, 2012

Yep. It’s much easier… lol
Tks for your persistence. Your code worked…

fabes

# August 2, 2012

I have a chat log i want to get all links out of. How do i use this code to do this?

*I am not a programmer*

can i run some kind of batch command file or something and point to the text log?

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rck

# August 21, 2012

echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, “{$url[0]} “, $text);
In above code
“{$url[0]}” => ‘{$url[0]}’

fix my problem

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Soladnet

# August 27, 2012

I keep having error on this line

echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, “{$url[0]} “, $text);

I think it has to be from “{$url[0]}” and {$url[0]}

can anyone help me on whats going on

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Andre

Permalink to comment# October 2, 2012

Yep, you should change it to
echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, “.$url[0].“, $text);

Ahmed

# December 5, 2012

i made some changes on it to work with multiple links

        function linkToAnchor($text) {
        // The Regular Expression filter
        $reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";

        // The Text you want to filter for urls

        // Check if there is a url in the text
        if(preg_match_all($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {
               // make the urls hyper links
               $matches = array_unique($url[0]);
               foreach($matches as $match) {
                    $replacement = "<a href=".$match.">{$match}</a>";
                    $text = str_replace($match,$replacement,$text);
               }
               return nl2br($text);
        } else {

               // if no urls in the text just return the text
               return nl2br($text);

        }
    }

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Anonymous

# December 22, 2012

Hello to every single one, it’s really a fastidious for me to visit this web site, it contains useful Information.

Reply ↓

virneto

# February 26, 2013

Yep!! Another very usefull snippet!! Another bookmark to css ticks ;)

Reply ↓

Techya

# April 20, 2013

It has syntax errors too.Below is the correct code:

<?php


// The Regular Expression filter

$reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(\/\S*)?/";
// The Text you want to filter for urls

$text = "The text you want to filter goes here. http://google.com&quot;;
// Check if there is a url in the text

if(preg_match($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {
       // make the urls hyper links

       echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, "{$url[0]} ", $text);
} else {
       // if no urls in the text just return the text

       echo $text;

} ?>

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chris

# May 7, 2013

//easy—>worked for me

$data =”my text http://www.facebook.com/c.hodari90“;
$data = preg_replace( ‘/(http|ftp)+(s)?:(\/\/)((\w|.)+)(\/)?(\S+)?/i’, ‘\4‘, $data );

echo $data;

output = my text facebook.com/c.hodari90

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Innato

# May 19, 2013

Proposed code has a slight flaw. If $text contains two similar URLs, like “The text you want to filter has two URLs namely http://google.com but also http://google.com/index.html#hashtag” with both URLs starting the same, then the #hashtag in the second URL gets lost.
Since URLs inside a string are separated by spaces (I believe this is always the case), the following code works for me:

// The Regular Expression filter
$reg_exUrl = "/(https?|ftps?|file):\/\/([a-z0-9]([a-z0-9_-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z]{2,6}\/?([a-z0-9\?\._-~&#=+%]*)?/i";

// The Text you want to filter for URLs
$text = "The text you want to filter has two URLs namely http://google.com but also http://google.com/index.html#hashtag";

// add leading and trailing spaces they serve as URL delimiters in case
// the URL is at the very beginning or end of $text
$text = " ".$text." ";

// Check if there is a url in the text
if(preg_match_all($reg_exUrl, $text, $url)) {
    // make the URL hyper links
   $matches = array_unique($url[0]);
   foreach($matches as $match) {
      $replacement = "<a href=".$match.">".$match."";
      $text = str_replace(" ".$match." ", " ".$replacement." ", $text);
   }

   // if URLs in the text, return the text after
   // removing the leading and trailing spaces
   $text = trim(nl2br($text), " ");
}
else {
   // if no URLs in the text, return the original text after
   // removing the leading and trailing spaces
   echo trim($text, " ");
}

By the way, I use a different regex which does not match URLs that contain forbidden characters like @

Anf finally… what a pain in the back to get this comment displayed the right way (I hope…).

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Find URLs in Text, Make Links

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