Convert url string wrapped in BBcode-style [url] and [/url] tags into an HTML hyperlink

Question

I want to convert [url]http://www.stackoverflow.com[/url] to:

<a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com">http://www.stackoverflow.com</a>

I assume that I want to use preg_replace(), but I just can't get it working.

I suggest you try a regular expression evaluator that provides hints, e.g. RegExr. Note that the url uses the regex provided by alex. — JRL
– JRL, Commented Sep 19, 2011 at 4:19
See also: How to convert bbcode url tag to an html hyperlink using the bbcode tag's values? and Convert BBCode [url] tags into clickable HTML <a href> links and regex bbcode and hyperlink from string and an intelligent regex to convert links (from bbcode and not) in html and preg_replace: BB code to HTML URL — mickmackusa
– mickmackusa ♦, Commented Jun 23, 2024 at 9:29
and URL-BBCode Regex and Convert text url to a clickable url and Link unlinked urls (BBCode) regex and Replace [url]text[/url] BBCode placeholders with HTML hyperlinks and How to Create Hyper Link from User Defined Tag Using Regular Expression — mickmackusa
– mickmackusa ♦, Commented Jun 23, 2024 at 9:33

alex · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-19 04:10:22Z

3

$str = preg_replace('/\[url\](.*?)\[\/url\]/', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $str);

CodePad.

PHP does have a BBCode parser too.

^{BBCode sucks... have you tried Markdown?}

answered Sep 19, 2011 at 4:10

alex

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1 Comment

Mike Cole Over a year ago

I'm not a huge fan of BBCode, but I really only needed barebones functionality so it works well in this case. I wasn't aware of Markdown, so thanks for the heads up.

Kakashi · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-24 13:57:54Z

1

Try this:

$text = preg_replace("/\[url\](.*?)\[\/url\]/i","<a href='$1'>$1</a>", "[url]http://www.stackoverflow.com[/url]");

edited Sep 24, 2011 at 13:57

answered Sep 19, 2011 at 4:12

Kakashi

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