# RegEx Question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 10, 2006, 1:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382 "2006-02-10T13:17:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John_Nunemaker)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 1:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382/1 "2006-02-10T13:17:36Z")

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Hi,  
This is more of a Ruby question than Rails. I want to autolink url’s in  
a given  
string. I’m not great with regular expressions and I wandered if anybody  
has an  
example. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John_Nunemaker)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382/2 "2006-02-10T13:38:07Z")

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John Nunemaker wrote:

> Hi,  
> This is more of a Ruby question than Rails. I want to autolink url’s in a given  
> string. I’m not great with regular expressions and I wandered if anybody has an  
> example. Thanks.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)  
> irb(main):010:0\> string = ‘This is a string with a  
> [http://test.link/foo.bar?query=&bar](http://test.link/foo.bar?query=&bar) in it.’  
> =\> “This is a string with a [http://test.link/foo.bar?query=&bar](http://test.link/foo.bar?query=&bar) in it.”

irb(main):011:0\> string.gsub(%r{(http://\S+)}, “#{$1}”)  
=\> “This is a string with a [http://test.link/foo.bar?query=&bar](http://test.link/foo.bar?query=&bar)  
in it.”

HTH

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John_Nunemaker)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382/3 "2006-02-10T14:01:45Z")

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If you are using rails you might want to lookinto auto\_link in  
ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper

Mikkel B.

www.strongside.dk - Football Portal(DK)  
[nflfeed.helenius.org](http://nflfeed.helenius.org) - Football News(DK)  
ting.minline.dk - Buy Old Stuff!(DK)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John_Nunemaker)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382/4 "2006-02-10T14:45:13Z")

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Wow. auto\_link is great. I guess I should have dug a little deeper. That  
was  
really simple. Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@John\_Nunemaker](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/John_Nunemaker)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regex-question/65382/5 "2006-02-10T14:03:05Z")

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or you could just use the auto\_link helper.

[http://rails.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/TextHelper.html#M000426](http://rails.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/TextHelper.html#M000426)