Using PHP replace regex with regex

Question

I want to replace hash tags in a string with the same hash tag, but after adding a link to it

Example:

$text = "any word here related to #English must #be replaced." 

I want to replace each hashtag with

#English ---> <a href="bla bla">#English</a> #be ---> <a href="bla bla">#be</a> 

So the output should be like that:

$text = "any word here related to <a href="bla bla">#English</a> must <a href="bla bla">#be</a> replaced." 

Answer 1

$input_lines="any word here related to #English must #be replaced."; preg_replace("/(#\w+)/", "<a href='bla bla'>$1</a>", $input_lines); 

DEMO

OUTPUT:

any word here related to <a href='bla bla'>#English</a> must <a href='bla bla'>#be</a> replaced. 

Answer 2

This should nudge you in the right direction:

echo preg_replace_callback('/#(\w+)/', function($match) {     return sprintf('<a href="https://www.google.com?q=%s">%s</a>',          urlencode($match[1]),          htmlspecialchars($match[0])     ); }, htmlspecialchars($text)); 

See also: preg_replace_callback()