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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T00:05:54+00:00

I have an existing replace that matches http within a text string and creates

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I have an existing replace that matches http within a text string and creates a working URL from the text.

Working Example:

var Text = "Visit Gmail at http://gmail.com"
var linkText = Text.replace(/http:\/\/\S+/gi, '<a href="$&">$&</a>');
document.write(linkText);

Output:

Visit Gmail at http://gmail.com

Problem:

The problem arises when the link appears at the end of a sentence and the punctuation incorrectly becomes appended to the end of the URL.

Can someone advise on a way of extending my regex (or maybe adding a second replacement after this has been transformed) to overcome this?

I think the right answer will include adding something along the lines of /\W$/g to my original regex, but I can’t see how this can be applied to just one word within the whole string.

As always, very grateful for any help.

Thanks,
Pete

Examples of problem links

All of these should resolve the link to http://gmail.com

Note how some could end in a slash then punctuation and others with punctuation directly after the domain name.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Try

    /http:\/\/(.(?![.?] |$))*/

    My logic is, if the last char is a dot, or question mark followed by either a space or end of string, you don’t need it.

    var Text = "Visit Gmail at http://gmail.com"
var linkText = Text.replace(/http:\/\/(.(?![.?](?:\s|$)))*./gi, '<a href="$&">$&</a>');
document.write(linkText);

    Gives

    "Visit Gmail at <a href=\"http://gmail.com\">http://gmail.com</a>"

    Edit:

    This may be better (it doesn’t match white space now)

    http:\/\/(.(?!(?:[.?](?: |$))))*.
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