Regex for [title](http://) links

Question

I'm trying to parse links using php with a structure such as [google](http://google.com), and so far I've got this:

"/\[(.+?)\]((.+?\))/is"

The only part I can't get to work is the part with the parenthesis ')'.

Any help would be great!

[edit]

@jari - This is part of the code:

$find = array(
    "@\n@", 
    "/[**](.+?)[**]/is",
    "/\[(.+?)\]\((.+?)\)/is"
    );

$replace = array(
    "<br />",
    "<strong>$1</strong>",
    "<a href\"$1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"no follow\"></a>"
    );

$body = htmlspecialchars($body); 
$body = preg_replace($find, $replace, $body); 
return $body;

Specify a problem: what do you input and what do you desire to get? — sybear, Feb 17 '13 at 22:00
You're missing one backslash on the opening `(`. But move the escaping to the outer pair rather than the inner.... `\((.+?)\)` — Michael Berkowski, Feb 17 '13 at 22:00
This is a stricter regex: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14599071/how-can-i-write-a-javascript-regular-expression-to-replace-hyperlinks-in-this-fo/14604030#14604030 — nhahtdh, Feb 18 '13 at 10:24

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 17 '13 at 22:01

1

The parenthesis is a special character and usually marks sub-patterns inside your expression, so you need to escape them (just as you did with the square brackets, btw):

"/\[(.+?)\]\((.+?)\)/is"

answered Feb 17 '13 at 22:01

helmbert

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 17 '13 at 22:03

It should look something like:

\[([^\]]+)]\([^)]+\)

We are using [^x] which means, match anything that is not x.
We have used this to capture in group one everything after the [ which is not a ]. Same for the second group using [^)]+. Anything that is not a ).

Regex for [title](http://) links

2 Answers2