How to hyperlink a URL

[bhavesh]

I have a content wherein i can use i can use <a href html tags or just type in the Url.
Now i want to hyperlink the Url even if it is entered without a html tag. like the sample below.

$string = "<a href=http://www.hotmail.com>Clicking on this link takes you to Hotmail.</a>Clicking on this link takes you to http://www.yahoo.com and Clicking on this link takes you to <a href="http://www.phpbuilder.com">http://www.phpbuilder.com</a>";

When i display the above string i would like the display to be like below.

Clicking on this link takes you to Hotmail.Clicking on this link takes you to http://www.yahoo.com and Clicking on this link takes you to http://www.phpbuilder.com

The words Hotmail, http://www.yahoo.com and http://www.phpbuilder.com all three are hyperlinked.

I need a code which does the above job. I may or maynot use the html tags and still have the links as hyperlinked.
Thanks to anyone who gives the reply.

[theslinky]

Hi,

here is a code that will work:

<?php
$string = "This will goto <a href=\"http://www.hotmail.com/\">Hotmail</a><br>";
$string .= "This will goto http://www.yahoo.com<br>";

$newstring = preg_replace("/([^(href=\"|href=)](http|ftp)[^<\a>| ]*)/i", " <a href=\"\\1\">\\1</a>", $string);
print $newstring;

?>

$string is the stuff you want to parse. $newstring becomes the parsed string. If you want you can always set the original $string to the parsed string.

hope this helps!
-sridhar

[bhavesh]

Great piece of Code.
Thanks for the same.