[RESOLVED] Regex, escape a '&'... (Im trying to find URL's)

php-phan

Ok so i created this RegEx

preg_match_all("/(https:\/\/|http:\/\/|www\.)[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-z]{2,3}[\/a-zA-Z0-9&\-\.?=\+]*/", $message, $url);
		print_r($url);

when i type in something like

Hello everyone you should all go to http://www.google.com and maybe www.apple.com

it will replace the two URL's with a html link. Thats all fine and dandy until someone enters this type of url

http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=10

It will include all of the url up until the ampersand (&). How do I add it to my REGEX? i have tried \& and \& and just putting & but nothing is working. Any help would be REALLY appreciated :-)

johanafm

Looks fine to me

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=10
        )

[1] => Array
    (
        [0] => http://
    )

)

However, due to your regexp, the following will also be accepted

$url = "http://phpbuilder.comLOTSOFCRAPHERESHOULDNOTBEOK"

Inserting (\/|\?) after {2,3} would solve that issue.

bradgrafelman

Also note that allowing only 2-3 characters for the TLD will not match all valid TLDs (such as .museum or .travel).

php-phan

That doesnt make sense. I get

Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php?do=newthread ) [1] => Array ( [0] => http:// ) )

....

johanafm

Does the last part of your pattern really contain the ampersand like below, or did you remove it in your own code?

"[\/a-zA-Z0-9&\-\.?=\+]*/"

php-phan

yes it does.

preg_match_all("/(https:\/\/|http:\/\/|www\.)[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-zA-z]{2,3}[\/a-zA-Z0-9&\-\.?=\+]*/", $message, $url);

still nothing....ugh, this is so stressful. Do you guys know any other way I could accomplish this?

bradgrafelman

Do a var_dump($message); and paste the results here - that way we can see exactly what kind of 'message' you're working with.

Also note that your pattern could be shortened a bit to:

preg_match_all("@(?:https?://|www\.)[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,3}[/a-z0-9&.?=+-]*@i", $message, $url);

The regexp seems fine to me as well. Here was my test code:

$message = 'This URL: http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=10 works!';
preg_match_all("@(?:https?://|www\.)[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,3}[/a-z0-9&.?=+-]*@i", $message, $url);

print_r($url);

and the output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => http://phpbuilder.com/board/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=10
        )

)

php-phan

OMG! I feel like such a douche! I AM SO SORRY YOU GUYS! but I was sending it through AJAX and what was happening was when I was sending the url it would mess up the request! So i had to replace with %26.. THANK YOU GUYS!!!

bradgrafelman

At least you found your mistake and resolved it. 🙂

Speaking of, don't' forget to mark this thread resolved (if it is) using the link on the Thread Tools menu.