Replace Markdown-like links with HTML links in a string

Question

I have a strings of the form

\"Look at this [website]{http://www.stackoverflow.com} 
or at this [page]{http://www.google.com}\"

and I want

Answer 1

This can be made easily by using preg_replace:

$pattern = "/(\\[([^\\]]+)\\]\\{([^\\}]+)\\})/";
$replacement = '<a href="$3">$2</a>';
$finalStr = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $yourString);

Answer 2

try it with preg_replace

$str="Look at this [website]{http://www.stackoverflow.com} or at this [page]{http://www.google.com}";

echo preg_replace('/\[(.*?)\]\{(.*?)\}/', "<a href='$2'>$1</a>", $str);

output:

Look at this <a href='http://www.stackoverflow.com'>website</a> or at this <a href='http://www.google.com'>page</a>

working Example: https://3v4l.org/jLbff