Regex for splitting a string containing text and url

Question

I have input strings like below:

[URL=http://...]Lorem ipsum[/URL]

They should be converted in HTML tags:

<a href="http://...">Lorem ipsum</a>

Example:

[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]

This should be converted in:

<a href="http://domain.com">My Awesome Link Text</a>

I tried to split the string using a regular expression:

> a = "[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]"
'[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]'
> s = a.split(/\[|\]|=/)
[ '',
  'URL',
  'http://domain.com',
  'My Awesome Link Text',
  '/URL',
  '' ]
> o = "<a href=\"" + s[2] + "\">" + s[3] + "</a>"
'<a href="http://domain.com">My Awesome Link Text</a>'

This works fine for links that don't contain = in their url. But things get complicated when we have querystring parameters:

> a = "[URL=http://domain.com?param=value]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]"
'[URL=http://domain.com?param=value]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]'
> s = a.split(/\[|\]|=/)
[ '',
  'URL',
  'http://domain.com?param',
  'value',
  'My Awesome Link Text',
  '/URL',
  '' ]
> o = "<a href=\"" + s[2] + "\">" + s[3] + "</a>"
'<a href="http://domain.com?param">value</a>'

How to split such strings, but not splitting the = inside of the url?

Ionică Bizău · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 07:48:52Z

1

Pattern:

^.*?\[URL=([^\]]*)\]([^\[]*).*$

Replacement:

<a href="$1">$2</a>

In JavaScript:

> "[URL=http://domain.com?asd=a]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]".replace(/^.*?\[URL=([^\]]*)\]([^\[]*).*$/, '<a href="$1">$2</a>')
'<a href="http://domain.com?asd=a">My Awesome Link Text</a>'

DEMO

edited Jul 18, 2014 at 7:48

Ionică Bizău

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answered Jul 18, 2014 at 7:43

Avinash Raj

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Comments

Stalinko · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 07:41:15Z

1

Don't split, just parse it!

a.match(/\[URL=(.+)\](.+)\[\/URL\]/i)

And we get:

["[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]", "http://domain.com", "My Awesome Link Text"]

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 7:41

Stalinko

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Comments

Mathias Dolidon · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 07:50:42Z

1

Tested in Javascript.

[URL=([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)\[\/URL\]

Not splitting : decomposing into groups.

t = '[URL=http://domain.com?param=value]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]'
r = /\[URL=([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)\[\/URL\]/;
t.match(r)
--> ["[URL=http://domain.com?param=value]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]", "http://domain.com?param=value", "My Awesome Link Text"]

edited Jul 18, 2014 at 7:50

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 7:41

Mathias Dolidon

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Comments

yao lu · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 08:19:01Z

1

var reg = /\[URL\=([^\]]+)\](.*)\[\/URL\]$/;
var str = '[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]';
var result = str.match(reg);

the result val:

["[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome Link Text[/URL]", "http://domain.com", "My Awesome Link Text"]

you can use the result:

var html = "<a href=\"" + result[1] + "\">" + result[2] + "</a>";

other sample test:

maybe the link text include [] or other tag [red][/red] ,like this

"[URL=http://domain.com]My Awesome [red]Link Text[/red][/URL]"

so the first answer is not the best choice,because it not allow the link text include[or]

edited Jul 18, 2014 at 8:19

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 7:50

yao lu

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