converting string to URL in PHP

Question

I have a string in php and I want to convert it into a URL,Basically I am taking input from the user so I am not sure either he write http://www.google.com or just www.google.com or maybe just google.com, In either cases I have to show him the URL link in an anchor tag. I am looking for any PHP function that can do this, Otherwise I have to manually search for http and other If else condition will surely gonna waste my time,If there is no function I would be more than happy to write one and make it open to the community. EDIT: Another thing is the best way to write HTML in PHP, I mean is it good if we use echo' long HTML Forms' etc any solution Thanks

Answer 1

you can still use parse_url function

$parsed = parse_url($urlStr);
if (empty($parsed['scheme'])) {
    $urlStr = 'http://' . ltrim($urlStr, '/');
}

about writing html with PHP, it's okay to use echo function, just make sure you escape the double quotes with backslash