[FIXED] Why does my regex return empty in the capturing subpattern?

Issue

I have written these codes to convert url-like text to hyperlink:

$reg_exUrl = "/(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/www\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{5}\.com(\w*)(\/\S*)?/";
echo preg_replace($reg_exUrl, '<a href="$1://www.$2.com">$1://www.$2.com$3</a>','http://www.abcde.com/index.html');

Output is :

<a href="http://www..com">http://www..com/index.html</a>

But $2 is empty - why is this?

Solution

I think you want something like this:

(http|https|ftp|ftps)\:\/\/www\.([a-zA-Z0-9]{5})\.com(\w*\/\S*)?

https://regex101.com/r/MJ3A6K/1

Answered By - amasmiller

Answer Checked By - Mary Flores (PHPFixing Volunteer)