function auto_link($text) {
  $pattern = '/(((http[s]?:\/\/(.+(:.+)?@)?)|(www\.))[a-z0-9](([-a-z0-9]+\.)*\.[a-z]{2,})?\/?[a-z0-9.,_\/~#&=:;%+!?-]+)/is';
  $text = preg_replace($pattern, ' <a href="$1">$1</a>', $text);
  // fix URLs without protocols
  $text = preg_replace('/href="www/', 'href="http://www', $text);
  return $text;
}

25 thoughts on “PHP Auto-link Function”

1. Good code.
   Thanks

2. I will try this codes. Thank you for sharing this.

3. This is a great code! Smal and fully functionaly….

4. the fix didn’t work
   needs to be
   $text = preg_replace($pattern, “<a href=”$1″ rel=”nofollow”>$1</a>”, $text);

   But other than that, thank you very much.

5. Frank: Aside from add the “rel” attribute, how is your code different? I use this auto_link() function all the time and I’ve never had a problem with it.

6. Something else!
   Email in the string is interpreted (eg. test@sample.com) as a url

   Sorry. Should of use tags for the code
   
$text = preg_replace($pattern, "<a href="$1" rel="nofollow">$1</a>", $text);


7. Not sure how to show the code

   $text = preg_replace($pattern, “<a>$1</a>”, $text);

   \ ” $1 \ “

8. Pattern doesn’t work for an expression like this: “http://site.com”

9. My site has frames, and when I use your function on links it’s open in the same frame, but I need to open it in a new window, how to fix it?

10. @Stastonix: All you need to do is add the target attribute to line #3.

    $text = preg_replace($pattern, ” <a href=’$1′ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>$1</a>”, $text);

11. @Clément: I just tested the function on “http://site.com” and it worked just fine. If you still have problems, let me know.

12. @Frank: Thanks, I updated the code to fix both problems you mentioned.

13. how to use this code to grab keyword lists text as a link?

14. thank !!!

15. Thank you for this function, very useful.
    Nevertheless, it doesn’t work when there’s a comma (,) in URL.
    Could you improve your function ?
    Thank you in advance

16. @Christophe: Thanks. I’ve updated the pattern to also match commas in URLs.

17. Thank you very much for your work and your reactivity !

18. Dear Andy, more and more url include colon (:). Could you improve your function ?
    Thank you in advance :-)

19. @Christophe Can you provide a sample URL? I have updated the function to match colons in general, but I’d like to ensure it properly matches the URLs you are trying to auto-link.

20. Of course, here it is :
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World-Population-1800-2100.svg
    Thank you !

21. @Christophe The update I made today should match that URL fine. Let me know if you have any problems.

22. Hi Andy !
    Some url have an exclamation mark like :
    http://www.metronews.fr/sport/michael-schumacher-apres-un-mois-de-coma-il-entame-un-processus-de-reveil/mnaD!YFD5gTwXxGDw/

    Bye

23. @Christophe Thanks for catching that. The pattern has been updated to support exclamation points.

24. Excellent and very usefull TANK YOU !!!
    You made me win hours :)

25. Excellent function. Works almost perfect for me. I modified it to open the link in a new window which is normally my default:

    function auto_link($text) {
    $pattern = ‘/(((http[s]?:\/\/(.+(:.+)?@)?)|(www\.))[a-z0-9](([-a-z0-9]+\.)*\.[a-z]{2,})?\/?[a-z0-9.,_\/~#&=:;%+!?-]+)/is’;
    $text = preg_replace($pattern, ‘ $1‘, $text);
    // fix URLs without protocols
    $text = preg_replace(‘/href=”www/’, ‘href=”http://www’, $text);
    return $text;
    }

    Thanks for posting this function.