Extract links in a string and return an array of objects

Question

I receive a string from a server and this string contains text and links (mainly starting with http://, https:// and www., very rarely different but if they are different they don't matter).

Example:

"simple text simple text simple text domain.ext/subdir again text text text youbank.com/transfertomealltheirmoney/witharegex text text text and again text"

I need a JS function that does the following: - finds all the links (no matter if there are duplicates); - returns an array of objects, each representing a link, together with keys that return where the link starts in the text and where it ends, something like:

[{link:"http://www.dom.ext/dir",startsAt:25,endsAt:47},
{link:"https://www.dom2.ext/dir/subdir",startsAt:57,endsAt:88},
{link:"www.dom.ext/dir",startsAt:176,endsAt:192}]

Is this possible? How?

EDIT: @Touffy: I tried this but I could not get how long is any string, only the starting index. Moreover, this does not detect www: var str = string with many links (SO does not let me post them)" var regex =/(\b(https?|ftp|file|www):\/\/[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/ig; var result, indices = []; while ( (result = regex.exec(str)) ) { indices.push({startsAt:result.index}); }; console.log(indices[0].link);console.log(indices[1].link);

Now that you know it's possible, it would be nice if you tried it. If it doesn't work when you do, you can post your code and we'll explain why. (hint: use indexOf or match string methods) — Touffy
– Touffy, Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 15:22
@mplungjan: "simple text simple text simple text domain.ext/subdir again text text text yourbank.com/transfertomealltheirmoney/witharegex text text text and again text". SO eliminates h t t p: / / from my strings — user1094081
– user1094081, Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 15:27

AmmarCSE · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-18 16:02:44Z

14

One way to approach this would be with the use of regular expressions. Assuming whatever input, you can do something like

 var expression = /(https?:\/\/(?:www\.|(?!www))[^\s\.]+\.[^\s]{2,}|www\.[^\s]+\.[^\s]{2,})/gi;
 var matches = input.match(expression);

Then, you can iterate through the matches to discover there starting and ending points with the use of indexOf

for(match in matches)
    {
        var result = {};
        result['link'] = matches[match];
        result['startsAt'] = input.indexOf(matches[match]);
        result['endsAt'] = 
            input.indexOf(matches[match]) + matches[match].length;
     }

Of course, you may have to tinker with the regular expression itself to suit your specific needs.

You can see the results logged by console in this fiddle

edited Apr 18, 2015 at 16:02

answered Apr 18, 2015 at 15:44

AmmarCSE

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1 Comment

user1094081 Over a year ago

This is what I was looking for but I used exec, while in this case match is a better choice, thanks

Femi · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-08 14:18:19Z

0

const getLinksPool = (links) => { //you can replace the https with any links like http or www

const linksplit = links.replace(/https:/g, " https:");
let linksarray = linksplit.split(" ");
let linkspools = linksarray.filter((array) => {
return array !== "";
});

return linkspools;

};

answered Sep 8, 2022 at 14:18

Femi

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