First, this task can be accomplished with a regex, but it is only _so_ effective.

If there was some way to make functions that would take in a string, and return a string that has all links, and all email addresses (2 seperate functions, or one with a set of switches) properly formatted to work as links.

The reason it is hard with regex, is becuase it is impossible to search for a link when it can be formatted so many ways.



/********** simple **************/
$string = "Hey, check out http://www.spoonified.com, and email me at spoon@nexdot.net";

$linkified = hrefparse($string);

echo $linkified;
/*******************************/

returns this:

Hey, check out <a href="http://www.spoonified.com">http://www.spoonified.com</a>, and email me at <a href="mailto:spoon@nexdot.net">spoon@nexdot.net</a>



of course, the link, the main reason regex is bad, could have many things in it, it could point to a file, have a query string in it, have no www, have many PERIODS (multiple subdomains), be https://, and also not be seperated from other text (such as "OMFGwww.spoonified.comRULES"), and the list goes on.

Email addresses follow the same conditions i mentioned above (minus a few of course, and plus a few also).

Maybe im just overlooking a complex enough regex to do this.

I DO know it can be done. Many IRC/Instant Message programs do a wonderful job of it. They take a link, no matter what conditions, or an email address, and will show an active link once sent. Obviously there is a rexeg im too lame to understand, or a better way to accomplish it.



(also, you 5.0.xCVS is still having an error on the php4apache2.dll compile, just a sidenote, no comments needed, i think you guys are already aware)