Question

When I get the json from the rest api, it comes in plain text. I need to convert the @..’s and #..’s to actual links. Anyway to do that with javascript?

Answer 1

Assume text to be the string containing the message. A Regular expression can easily convert the @’s and #’s to links. The replace function takes two arguments:

1. Search term (regular expression: @(\S+) means: “Match any non-whitespace after @, and group the non-whitespace characters (\s+))
2. Replacement. The $1 refers to the grouped match at 1.

Code:

text = text.replace(/@(\S+)/g, '<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/$1">@$1</a>')
           .replace(/#(\S+)/g, '<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/%23$1">#$1</a>');