script that simply replace text with links bug

Hi

I wrote a short script that simply replace text with links.
But then I had a big problem-
If the text was already in a link then you can imagine what will happen-
it will something like that- <a><a>text</a></a>

I have been told that regular expression is the best way to go.
how can I use ereg_replace in order to replace text with link but only if the text is not already in a link
in other words replace text with link only if it’s not surrounded with ‘’<a” and “/a>”

thanks

 

Lets say the variable for the text is $var

Just make an if statment that checks to see if this code returns a value >= 1

echo substr_count($var, '<a');

If it does then don't change the text, if it doesnt then do... I think that should work anyhow =P

 

There are two options:
1. Don't touch a text containing anchor tags:

    ...
if (stristr($text,'<a') === FALSE) {
    $link= ............  // use your favorite way to convert text to links
}

Code (markup):

(this assumes all existing anchor tags in $text are valid)

2. Remove all anchor tags from the text before creating a link

$text=preg_replace('/\<[\/]{0,1}a.*\>/iU', '', $text);
$link= ............   ; // use your favorite way to convert text to links 

Code (markup):

 

Try this:

<?php

	$textToReplace = "text";
	$String = "Here is some sample text, the word <a>text</a> in a tags should be left alone";
	
	$NewString = preg_replace( "/[^>]($textToReplace)[^<]/i", ' <a href="link.htm">$1</a>', $String );
	
	echo $NewString;

?>

PHP:

Brew

 

Thanks to you all.

Brewster was the closest one to the solution (remember that I'm talking about a whole page not a single line)

Brewster's script was OK but-
1. What if there are space between the text and the tag (<a> text </a>)
So,' <a> text </a>' will become ' <a> <a href="link.htm">text</a> </a>'

2.what if 'text' is in a different tag like '<b>text<b/>'. I would like it to be replced to
So it will become '<b><a href="link.htm">text</a><b/>'

I need a script that covers those cases two.

thanks