Javascript create link from symbol in string

Question

here is my string

var text = "Lorem ipsum dolor *https://www.google.com/* amet, *https://www.google.com/*";

I would like to create new one like this

var newText = "Lorem ipsum dolor <a href="https://www.google.com/">https://www.google.com/</a> amet, <a href="https://www.google.com/">https://www.google.com/</a>";

My script not works. What I'm doing wrong?

var newText = text.replace("*", "<a href=></a>");

Please read the following: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/replace — Dexygen, Dec 28 '17 at 15:00
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/161738/what-is-the-best-regular-expression-to-check-if-a-string-is-a-valid-url — epascarello, Dec 28 '17 at 15:00

The fourth bird · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-28T15:26:20.610

1

You are replacing the first occurence of the asterix with <a href=></a>

var text = "Lorem ipsum dolor *https://www.google.com/* amet, *https://www.google.com/*";
var newText = text.replace("*", "<a href=></a>");
console.log(newText);

To replace them all, you could use a capturing group (which will be in $1) and then use replace:

\*(.*?)\*

Explanation

Match an asterix \*
A capturing group which captures any character non greedy (.*?)
Match an asterix \*

var text = "Lorem ipsum dolor *https://www.google.com/* amet, *https://www.google.com/*";
var newText = text.replace(/\*(.*?)\*/g, "<a href=\"$1\">$1</a>");
console.log(newText)

edited Dec 28 '17 at 15:26

answered Dec 28 '17 at 15:05

The fourth bird

154,723
16
55
70

hopefully there are no links inside the string to start.... In the example it would be fine, but if there is an image or something in the real stuff it will break. – epascarello Dec 28 '17 at 15:11
var newText = text.replace(/\*(.*?)\*/g, "$1"); – Guillaume Georges Dec 28 '17 at 15:20
This will add the links URL to the href parameter of the A tag. – Guillaume Georges Dec 28 '17 at 15:20

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 28 '17 at 15:25

You could try the code below:

var text = "Lorem ipsum dolor *https://www.google.com/* amet, *https://www.google.com/*";
var arrtext=text.split('*');
var newtext='';

for(var i=0;i<arrtext.length;i++){

    if(arrtext[i].startsWith("http")){
         var link='<a href="'+arrtext[i]+'">'+arrtext[i]+'</a>';
         newtext=newtext+link;
    }else{
        newtext=newtext+arrtext[i];
    }

}

Javascript create link from symbol in string

2 Answers2