Using Regex to replace username with links

Question

I'm using the Twitter API to fetch information about all of my followers. In many cases, their bio will have a link to their Instagram page. They usually define it by writing something along the lines of IG: myigusername94 or instagram - myigusername93. I'm not that good with regex and I'd like to know how to test for the presence of a set of chars like ig: or 'instagram -` and replace it with

"ig: <a href="http://instagram.com/myigusername94">myigusername94</a>"

I know this is probably a simple fix. But, I'm very new to regex.

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-13 22:02:19Z

1

You can search using this regex:

\b(instagram|ig)\s*[:-]\s*\K([\w.]+)\b

And replace it by:

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

RegEx Demo

Code:

$re = '/\b(instagram|ig)\s*[:-]\s*\K([\w.]+)\b/'; 

$result = preg_replace($re, '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $input);

answered Jan 13, 2015 at 22:02

anubhava

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