finding an URL in a code and creating a hypertext link with this URL

Hello! I have a plain text which contains URLs and I'd like to display them with a link: The following string: http://www.php.net would be replaced with: <a href="http://www.php.net">http://www.php.net</a> It sounds simple but actually it is pretty hard in some cases. First problem: what are the characters that are "reserved" or "unsafe" in an URL? I found the following ones: [:space:] ( ) < > # % { } [ ] | \ ^ : Second problem: The URL is embedded in the text; imagine the following sentence in the text: just look at http://www.dbourdon.com. It's worth visiting. OK, apart the fact that it's really worth visiting :-> just after the URL there is a dot which is ponctuation and not part of the URL. Third problem: it is to be done with EREGI_REPLACE and regular expressions, and most of the signs are forbidden signs in regular expressions... So here is whatr I find just before getting a headache: $text = EREGI_REPLACE("(http://[^([:space:]\(\)<>#%:\{\}\|\\\^)]+[^([:space:] \(\)<>#%:\{\}\|\\\^\.)])","<a href=\"\\1\">\\1</a>",$text); It does work but I think the regular expressions can be improved. I have tried to read the RFCs about URL syntax but I must admit that it's impossible to read... Can you help me and improve the regular expression? I think some of you has already dealt with this and it might be useful for lots of developers. And sorry for my poor English... Den. -- Denis Bourdon - dbourdon@dbourdon.com Etudiant à Telecom Grenoble ENSIMAG/ENSERG site personnel: www.dbourdon.com webmaster de l'espace étudiants de Telecom Grenoble: www-telecoms.imag.fr/etudiants