Let [url]..[/url] make an url (from the database)

[lukelukeluke]

Hi there,

I would like to integrate a function into my little PHP application.
I've searched around and tried some things out with str_replace(), but i didnt find any solution

What i wanted to do was letting the Users write some things into a textarea field, also urls. I want to give them the possibility to write this around the url:
the_url_here
so people will be able to click on it. It should take this:
http://domain.com/

and make this with it:
<a class="xx" href="

http://domain.com/">http://domain.com/</a>

any ideas?
thanks alot!

 

[lukelukeluke]

added:
It would also be cool if the URLS would be auto generated. Like they are intektips. So if anyone enters an URL with "

http://"

it makes an <a> automatically....

 

[Vragabond]

For your second question, if you look at the preg_replace function in the php manual, in the comments section are numerous examples of how to do that.