Creating Link with Regular Expressions

[toad78]

I'm trying to create a link within some text that is displayed from a database table. I want it to be able to scan the text and convert anything that has a 'www.' or 'http://' to a link.

Here's the info.

<p><?php echo nl2br($row_recent_event['description']); ?></p>

I was advised to use the following regular expression:

<?php
function hyperlink($text) {
    // match protocol://address/path/file.extension?some=variable&another=asf%
    $text = preg_replace("/\s([a-zA-Z]+:\/\/[a-z][a-z0-9\_\.\-]*
            [a-z]{2,6}[a-zA-Z0-9\/\*\-\?\&\%]*)([\s|\.|\,])/i",
            " <a href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\">$1</a>$2", $text);
    // match www.something.domain/path/file.extension?some=variable&another=asf%
    $text = preg_replace("/\s(www\.[a-z][a-z0-9\_\.\-]*
            [a-z]{2,6}[a-zA-Z0-9\/\*\-\?\&\%]*)([\s|\.|\,])/i",
            " <a href=\"http://$1\" target=\"_blank\">$1</a>$2", $text);
    // match name@address
    $text = preg_replace("/\s([a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9\_\.\-]*[a-zA-Z]*
            \@[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9\_\.\-]*[a-zA-Z]{2,6})([\s|\.|\,])/i",
            " <a href=\"mailto://$1\">$1</a>$2", $text);
    return $text;
}
?>

Question is, how do I get it to work? For example, within the database table there is some text in a field that has the text 'www.yadayadayada.com'. I would like to for this function to recognize the text and create the link.

Any suggestions?

toad78

[rulian]

its not done in the database it's done in your php
get the information from the database normally
and instead of echoing out the fields in the database
you simply echo out the program you have (if it works)

so for example

$query=mysql_query("select `text` from `foo` where `bar` = '5'"); 
if ($query) $MyInfo=mysql_fetch_assoc($query); 

echo hyperlink($MyInfo['text']); 

[toad78]

rulian wrote:

$query=mysql_query("select `text` from `foo` where `bar` = '5'"); 
if ($query) $MyInfo=mysql_fetch_assoc($query); 

echo hyperlink($MyInfo['text']); 

Didn't work. But here I have posted my code:

mysql_select_db($database_ongoing_calendar, $ongoing_calendar);
$query_recent_event = "SELECT * FROM recent_event";
$recent_event = mysql_query($query_recent_event, $ongoing_calendar) or die(mysql_error());
$row_recent_event = mysql_fetch_assoc($recent_event);
$totalRows_recent_event = mysql_num_rows($recent_event);

<p><?php echo hyperlink($row_recent_event['description']); ?></p>

The result:
The Fratello Marionettes made an appearance at the Ripon Memorial Library on Thursday, February 21, 2008 in the Community Room. The master puppeteers displayed their skillful talents with a variety of puppets and acts; during the show puppets spun, danced, jumped and even flew!!! The audience, young and old, was obviously captivated by this amazing display of puppetry. To learn more about the Fratello Marionettes and their array of puppets visit http://www.fratellom.com.

The web address wasn't recognized (but it might be underlined in this post because of the automated web address recognition). What can I do?

toad78