Here’s a great PHP snippet that scans text and then searches for strings with an “@” symbol attached to it (i.e. Twitter handles like “@name”) and then converts them into linked text format. So basically it’s emulating what Twitter does with “@” symbols and “#” hashtags.

<?php 
/** parseTwitterNicks 
 * 
 * convert text with format "@foo" to link (mentions) 
 * 
 * @author Jonathan Andres 
 * @param string $str string with twitter nicks 
 * @param mixed string|array $allowed list of nicks allowed 
 * @param string $format template for link 
 * @param bool $toArray return matches as array or string 
 * @return mixed string|array 
 */ 
function parseTwitterNicks($str, $allowed = 'all', $format = 'default', $toArray = false){ 
// capture all nicks with format @tweetnick 
preg_match_all('~@([a-z0-9-_]+)~is', $str, $match); 
// check template 
if($format == 'default') 
 $format = 'profile.php?user={nick}'; 
if(!preg_match('~\{nick\}~', $format)) 
 $format = $format . '{nick}'; 
// have matches? 
if(empty($match[1])) 
 return ($toArray ? array() : $str); 
// save matches 
$found = array(); 
// replace matches 
foreach($match[1] as $nick){ 
 // ignore disallowed nicks 
 if(!empty($allowed) && $allowed != 'all'){ 
 if(is_array($allowed)){ 
 if(!in_array($nick, $allowed)) 
 continue; 
 } 
 } 
 // text to link 
 $url = str_replace('{nick}', $nick, $format); 
 $str = str_replace('@' . $nick, '<a href="' . $url . '" title="' . $nick . '">@' . $nick . '</a>', $str); 
 $found[] = $nick; 
} 
return ($toArray ? $found : $str); 
/* 
A basic example: 
----------------- 
$string = 'hello friends, I\'m listening @daftPunk and you?'; 
echo parseTwitterNicks($string, 'all'); 
return: hello my friends, I'm listening <a href="profile.php?user=daftPunk" title="daftPunk">@daftPunk</a> and you? 
define template: 
----------------- 
$string = 'hello friends, I\'m listening @daftPunk and you?'; 
echo parseTwitterNicks($string, 'all', 'http://www.phpsnaps.com/?user={nick}'); 
return: hello my friends, I'm listening <a href="http://www.phpsnaps.com/?user=daftPunk" title="daftPunk">@daftPunk</a> and you? 
return array with matches: 
-------------------------- 
$string = 'hello my friends, I\'m listening @daftPunk, @dubstep music @skrillex and you?'; 
$matches = parseTwitterNicks($string, 'all', '', true); 
print_r($matches); 
return: Array ( [0] => daftPunk [1] => dubstep [2] => skrillex ) 
*/ 
} 
?>     

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