Formatting text with regex

Question

I have two functions to format the text of my notices.

1. Converts [white-text][/white-text] into 

$string = preg_replace("/\[white-text\](\S+?)\[\/white-text\]/si","<font color=white>\\1</font>", $string);

2. Converts [url][/url] into <a href></a>

$string = preg_replace("/\[url\](\S+?)\[\/url\]/si","<a href=\"http://\\1\" target=\"_blank\">\\1</a>", $string);

Problems:
WHITE-TEXT - It only changes the color if the phrase has only ONE word.
URL - It works fine, but I would like to be able to write anything in the readable part of the URL.

change (\S+?) to (.+?) -- but you will have problems with nested or overlapping tags. Why not simply replace [white-text] with  and [/white-text] with  independently of each other to avoid nesting/overlap problems? — vladr
– vladr, Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 1:33
And, incidentally, the font element has been deprecated. You should probably be using span elements with classes (or inline styles, if you really have to). — David Thomas
– David Thomas, Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 1:38
Vladr, I didn't made it independently, cause I thought it wasn't good practice, but I will do that now. Just confirm it for me, it would look like this: $string = preg_replace("/[white-text]/","", $string); - RIGHT ? — Genesis
– Genesis, Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 2:19
Hello David Thomas, I'm using span classes, I just put the example like this to be easier to understand. — Genesis
– Genesis, Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 2:20

Paul S. · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-24 01:39:20Z

2

URL - It works fine, but I would like to be able to write anything in the readable part of the URL.

Make the URL code have the form [url=href]description[/url], you can then use this simple RegExp

"/\[url=([^\]]*)\](.+?)\[\/url\]/si"
"<a href=\"http://\\1\" target=\"_blank\">\\2</a>"

answered Nov 24, 2012 at 1:39

Paul S.

66.6k9 gold badges130 silver badges143 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Genesis Over a year ago

Oh, that seems easy and fine ... I'm testing it right now - THANK YOU!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Formatting text with regex

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related