Saturday, October 25, 2025
HomeLanguagesJavascriptHow to replace plain URL with link using JavaScript ?

How to replace plain URL with link using JavaScript ?

Given a plane URL, the task is to replace the plain URLs with the links. This problem can be solved with the help of Regular Expressions.

Approach: Using RegExp and replace() Method

  • RegExp – This looks for the URL in the provided text.
  • This RegExp parses the URL and puts the address to the $1 variable.
  • After getting the URL in the text, it replaces it with <a> element and sets its href and other attributes.

Example: This example implements the above approach. 

html




<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>
        How to replace plain URL with
        link using JavaScript ?
    </title>
</head>
 
<body style="text-align:center;">
 
    <h1 style="color:green;">
        GeeksForGeeks
    </h1>
 
    <p id="GFG_UP"
       style="font-size: 15px;
              font-weight: bold;">
    </p>
 
    <button onclick="GFG_Fun()">
        click here
    </button>
 
    <p id="GFG_DOWN"
       style="font-size: 24px;
              font-weight: bold;
              color: green;">
    </p>
 
    <script>
        let up = document.getElementById('GFG_UP');
        let down = document.getElementById('GFG_DOWN');
        let text = 'This is https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/';
 
        up.innerHTML = "Click on the button to replace "
            + "plain URLs with links.<br>" + text;
 
        function rep(text) {
 
            // Put the URL to variable $1 after visiting the URL
            const Rexp =
/((http|https|ftp):\/\/[\w?=&.\/-;#~%-]+(?![\w\s?&.\/;#~%"=-]*>))/g;
 
            // Replace the RegExp content by HTML element
            return text.replace(Rexp,
                "<a href='$1' target='_blank'>Link to URL</a>");
        }
 
        function GFG_Fun() {
            down.innerHTML = rep(text);
        }
    </script>
</body>
 
</html>


Output:

AnimationExample 2: In this example, we will put the URL to variable $1 and the Domain name to $3 after visiting the URL

html




<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
 
<head>
    <title>
        How to replace plain URL with
        link using JavaScript ?
    </title>
</head>
 
<body style="text-align:center;">
 
    <h1 style="color:green;">
        GeeksForGeeks
    </h1>
 
    <p id="GFG_UP"
       style="font-size: 15px;
              font-weight: bold;">
    </p>
 
    <button onclick="GFG_Fun()">
        click here
    </button>
 
    <p id="GFG_DOWN"
       style="font-size: 24px;
              font-weight: bold;
              color: green;">
    </p>
 
    <script>
        let up = document.getElementById('GFG_UP');
        let down = document.getElementById('GFG_DOWN');
        let text = 'This is https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/';
 
        up.innerHTML = "Click on the button to replace "
            + "plain URLs with links.<br>" + text;
 
        function rep(text) {
            // Put the URL to variable $1 and Domain name
            // to $3 after visiting the URL
            const Rexp =
/(\b(https?|ftp|file):\/\/([-A-Z0-9+&@#%?=~_|!:,.;]*)([-A-Z0-9+&@#%?\/=~_|!:,.;]*)[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/ig;
 
            // Replacing the RegExp content by HTML element
            return text.replace(Rexp,
                "<a href='$1' target='_blank'>$3</a>");
        }
 
        function GFG_Fun() {
            down.innerHTML = rep(text);
        }
    </script>
</body>
 
</html>


Output: 

Animation

RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular

Dominic
32361 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Milvus
88 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Nango Kala
6728 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Nicole Veronica
11892 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Nokonwaba Nkukhwana
11954 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Shaida Kate Naidoo
6852 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Ted Musemwa
7113 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Thapelo Manthata
6805 POSTS0 COMMENTS
Umr Jansen
6801 POSTS0 COMMENTS