Using a symbol to create a link: is this possible?

[sois]

Hi everyone.

I have a text link:
$text = "Hello `TTU will win it all!";

How can I write a script that will look for the ` symbol, search the DB with the team abbreviation, and output a link to the team page?";

I would like the search to read the $text variable and change it to this:

$text = "Hello <a href="team.php?team=TTU">Texas Tech</a> will win it all!";

Thanks guys!

[NogDog]

Untested:

if(preg_match('/`(\S+)/', $text, $matches))
{
  $abbrev = $matches[1];
  // At this point, do your DB query using $abbrev as the team abbreviation to
  // get the team name. We'll assume it's stored in the $teamName variable here...
  $replace = '<a href="team.php?team='.$abbrev.'">'.$teamName.'</a>';
  $text = preg_replace('/`\S+/', $replace, $text);
}

[bradgrafelman]

Or, condense it to one preg_ function:

function getTeamName($abbrev) {
   $query = ''; // do your query here
   $exec = mysql_query($query);

   if(!$exec || mysql_num_rows($exec) == 0)
      return '`' . $abbrev;
   else
      return '<a href="teamp.php?team='.$abbrev.'">'.mysql_result($exec, 0, 'teamName').'</a>';
}

$text = preg_replace('/`(\S+)/e', 'getTeamName("$1")', $text);