Converting URLs to links

[klycette]

What is the best method to use to convert email addresses and URL to links when they come back from the database. I've worked this issue out when the only thing in the database field is the url or email address, but I'm not sure how to do it when the email address is somewhere within a body of text. For example, if a user enters the following into a contact text area on my site,

"For information on ordering, please contact John at [e-mail] or visit us at www.somesite.com"

how do I convert the url and email address when they are displayed from the database to the web site so other users can click on them as links.

[Arc]

I would use explode to make an array then look at each item in the array to determine if it;s an email address or a website address (i.e. does it have a "@" and a".", if so it's an email address. Does it start with "www.", if so it's a website).

something like this

$TheString = "For information on ordering, please contact John at [e-mail] or visit us at www.somesite.com";
$StringArray=explode(" ",$TheString);
For($Counter=0;$Counter < Count($StringArray); $Counter++){
  if(strpos($StringArray[$Counter],"@") != FALSE && strpos($StringArray[$Counter],".") != FALSE) {
    Print"<a href=\"mailto:$StringArray[$Counter]\">$StringArray[$Counter]</a>"." ";
  }elseif(strpos($StringArray[$Counter],"www.")=== 0 || strpos($StringArray[$Counter],"Http://www.")=== 0){
    Print"<a href=\"$StringArray[$Counter]\">$StringArray[$Counter]</a>"." ";
  }else{
    Print $StringArray[$Counter]." ";
  }
}