PHP Shortcode Regex issue

Question

Hi so I need help in taking a block of html which contains existing shortcode for an old arbitrary system. Taking the code below and and using PHP change so the following :

[CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/)

would be transformed into this :

<a href="http://cdc.gov">CDC</a>

Any ideas on how i could achive this? There could be multiple instances in one block of code also. If anybody can help , I'd be grateful - thank you!!

There could be multiple instances in one block of code also - how that, can you visualize such case? — RomanPerekhrest
– RomanPerekhrest, Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 18:48
Not sure what you mean but as an example - this block of text: "Two excellent websites outlining the major precautions are: 'www.cdc.gov' and 'www.who.int' which are the official sites for the centers of disease control prevention and the World health organization respectively." has 2 instances of the shortcode. I'd need it to convert both instances to their respective links. — Fearghal
– Fearghal, Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 18:50
Ahh - ironically SE is changing the shortcodes as they are in my comment :( - its exactly what i need wow — Fearghal
– Fearghal, Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 18:53
so, those occurrences like 'www.cdc.gov' actually look like [TEXT]('www.cdc.gov') in source code? — RomanPerekhrest
– RomanPerekhrest, Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 18:54

RomanPerekhrest · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-09 19:05:36Z

3

The solution using preg_replace function with specific regex pattern:

$block = "Two excellent websites outlining the major precautions are: [some text](www.cdc.gov) and [who's next](www.who.int) which are the official sites ...";

$block = preg_replace("/\[([^]]+)\]\(([^)]+)\)/", '<a href="$2">$1</a>', $block);

print_r($block);

The output(from source code):

Two excellent websites outlining the major precautions are: <a href="www.cdc.gov">some text</a> and <a href="www.who.int">who's next</a> which are the official sites ...

answered Jan 9, 2017 at 19:05

RomanPerekhrest

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Eduardo Lynch Araya · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-09 19:25:14Z

0

This should Work:

PHP:

<?php 
$re = '/(?<=\[)[^]]+(?=\])|(?<=\()[^]]+(?=\))/m';
$str = '[CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/)';

preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches);

// Print the entire match result
//print_r($matches); //Print result
$url = $matches[0][1]; //http://www.cdc.gov/
$text_url = $matches[0][0]; //CDC
echo "<a href=".$url.">$text_url</a>"
 ?>

Result:

<a href=http://www.cdc.gov/>CDC</a>

Enjoy.

answered Jan 9, 2017 at 19:25

Eduardo Lynch Araya

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