php: Remove URL from string

Question

I have many strings (twitter tweets) from which I would like to remove the links when I echo them .

I have no control over the string and even though all the links start with http, they can end with a "/" or a ";" not, and be followed or not by a space. Also, sometimes there is not space between the link and the word just before it.

One example of such string:

The Third Culture: The Frontline of Global Thinkinghttp://is.gd/qFioda;via @edge

I have try to play around with preg_replace, but couldn't come up with a solution that fit all the exceptions:

<?php echo preg_replace("/\http[^)]+\;/","",$feed->itemTitle); ?>

Any idea how I should proceed?

Edit: I have tried

<?php echo preg_replace('@(https?://([-\w\.]+[-\w])+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_\.#-]*(\?\S+)?[^\.\s])?)‌​?)@', ' ', $feed->itemTitle); ?>

but still no success.

Edit 2: I found this one:

<?php echo preg_replace('^(ht|f)tp(s?)\:\/\/[0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*(:(0-9)*)*(\/?)([a-zA-Z0-9\-‌​\.\?\,\'\/\\\+&amp;%\$#_]*)?$^',' ', $feed->itemTitle); ?>

which remove the link as expected but it also deletes the entire string when there is not space between the link and the word that precedes it.

Answer 1

I would do something like this:

$input = "The Third Culture: The Frontline of Global Thinkinghttp://is.gd/qFioda;via @edge";
$replace = '"(https?://.*)(?=;)"';

$output = preg_replace($replace, '', $input);
print_r($output);

It works for multiple occurances too:

$output = preg_replace($replace, '', $input."\n".$input);
print_r($output);

Answer 2

If you want to remove everything, link and after the link, like via thing in your example, the below may help you:

$string = "The Third Culture: The Frontline of Global Thinkinghttp://is.gd/qFioda;via @edge";
$regex = "@(https?://([-\w\.]+[-\w])+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_\.#-]*(\?\S+)?[^\.\s])?).*$)@";
echo preg_replace($regex, ' ', $string);

If you want to keep them:

$string = "The Third Culture: The Frontline of Global Thinkinghttp://is.gd/qFioda;via @edge";
$regex = "@(https?://([-\w\.]+[-\w])+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_\.#-]*(\?\S+)?[^\.\s])?)?)@";
echo preg_replace($regex, ' ', $string);