Replace anchor text's in an html string

[joshis]

I have a html string that contain 'many' links like

<a href="http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=yOP&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=regular+expression+replace+long+links&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=">http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=yOP&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=regular+expression+replace+long+links&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=</a>

I want this link to be replaced with

<a href="http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=yOP&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=regular+expression+replace+long+links&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=">http://www.google.co.in/search...</a>

that is link text is shrink to limited no (30) chars.

I am not good at regx. Can any one please help?

[bh]

If it is not necessary (IMO) you dont have to use Regexp at all costs. If your links always likes

<a href="...">...</a>

than use substr.

[.josh]

$content = "..."; // content here
$content = preg_replace("~(<a[^>]+>)([^>]{1,30})[^>]*(</a>)~i",'$1$2...$3',$content);

 

edit: fixed variable names..

[joshis]

Thanks Crayon Violent, Its working fine. 

 

 

[.josh]

One caveat I noticed is that it will add the "..." to text shorter than 30 chars... also this is slightly better (meant to do < in stead of > in the 2nd and 3rd char classes)

$content = $link; // content here
$content = preg_replace("~(<a[^>]+>)([^<]{1,30})[^<]*(</a>)~i",'$1$2...$3',$content);

[joshis]

Thanks for your help. I have small tweek as you mensioned on last post, Itried last one but it doesn't work for me. For every link text it appends three dots (...) regardless of the total no of chars.

For example

<a href="http://site.com">site</a> it returns a href="http://site.com">site...</a>

 

 

 

it should be

<a href="http://site.com">site</a>

 

Only for link texts with length more than 30 i require ...

 

Any help is greatly appreatiated.