Add hyperlinks to words in php - php

Question

I have found this function on buildinternet.com.
function tag_it($text) {
$text = preg_replace("/:(\w+):/", '$1',$text);
return $text;
}
What it does is adding hyperlinks to words enclosed in ":" and the problem is that it works only with single words and it doesn`t work with words that has a single quote.
So if I do this,
$test = "one :word1:, :two words:, :this is a phrase:, this has a single quote :don't: or :don't forget:.";
echo tag_it($test);
only to the :word1: will be added a hyperlink, the rest will be ignored.
I don`t know too much php and I would appreciate if someone could make the function work with more than one word and with a single quote too.
Thank you!
Edit:
So I have tried the following to add a different link to words enclosed in "#"
function tag_it($text) {
$out = preg_replace_callback(
"/:([^\:]+):/",
function($m) {
$linkText = $m[1];
$link = str_replace('"', '', $m[1]);
$link = str_replace("'", "", $m[1]);
$link = str_replace(" ", "_", $link);
return ''.$linkText.'';
},
preg_replace_callback(
"/#([^\#]+)#/",
function($m1) {
$linkText1 = $m1[1];
$link1 = str_replace('"', '', $m1[1]);
$link1 = str_replace("'", "", $m1[1]);
$link1 = str_replace(" ", "_", $link1);
return ''.$linkText1.'';
},
$text
)
);
return $out;
}
$test = "one :word:, #two words#, :this is a phrase:, this has a single quote :don:'t or :don't forget:.";
echo tag_it($test);
and i get this
one word, two_words,_/" title="//www.example.com/blog/two_words/" title="two words" target="_blank">two words, " target="_blank">//www.example.com/blog/two_words/" title="two words" target="_blank">two words, this is a phrase, this has a single quote don't or don't forget:.
It seems to work for the 1st word enclosed in ":" and is trying to work with the words enclosed in "#" too but something is happening along the way and I can`t figure it out.
Any tip is really appreciated.
Thank you!

Answer 1

Change the crucial line in the function to the following:
$text = preg_replace("/:([^:]+):/", '$1', $text);

Answer 2

change this /:(\w+):/ to this /:([^:]+):/

Answer 3

Try this hope this simple one will help you out..
Regex: :([^\:]+):
:([^\:]+): it will match : then all till not : and then : in end
Try this code snippet here
<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
$test = "one :word1:, :two words:, :this is a phrase:, this has a single quote :don't: or :don't forget:.";
echo tag_it($test);
function tag_it($text)
{
$text = preg_replace("/:([^\:]+):/", '$1', $text);
return $text;
}

Answer 4

I'll let you finish it off, above are all valid, but leave you with broken links, so building on them, I'd do something like:
function tag_it($text) {
$out = preg_replace_callback(
"/:([^:]+):/",
function($m) {
$linkText = $m[1];
$link = str_replace('"', "", $m[1]);
$link = str_replace("'", "", $m[1]);
return ''.$linkText.'';
},
$text);
return $out;
}
You'll need to finish it off to replace spaces with - or _ or something but should be easy enough to work it out.

Answer 5

To answer to my "Edit:", I have figured out the problem.
Here is the full function
function tag_it($text) {
$out = preg_replace_callback(
"/:([^\:]+):/",
function($m) {
$linkText = $m[1];
$link = str_replace('"', '', $m[1]);
$link = str_replace("'", "", $m[1]);
$link = str_replace(" ", "_", $link);
return ''.$linkText.'';
},$text
);
$out = preg_replace_callback(
"/#([^\#]+)#/",
function($m) {
$linkText = $m[1];
$link = str_replace('"', '', $m[1]);
$link = str_replace("'", "", $m[1]);
$link = str_replace(" ", "_", $link);
return ''.$linkText.'';
},$out
);
$out = preg_replace_callback(
"/#([^\#]+)#/",
function($m) {
$linkText = $m[1];
$link = str_replace('"', '', $m[1]);
$link = str_replace("'", "", $m[1]);
$link = str_replace(" ", "_", $link);
return ''.$linkText.'';
},$out
);
return $out;
}
$test = "one :word:, #two words#, #this is a phrase#, this has a single quote #don't# or :don't forget:.";
echo tag_it($test);