# URL parsing smarts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/url-parsing-smarts/20217>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [May 22, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/url-parsing-smarts/20217 "2000-05-22T19:26:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2000, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/url-parsing-smarts/20217/1 "2000-05-22T19:26:27Z")

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Is there a way to make URL parsing smart enough to chop off trailing punctuation marks?

I mean, if I post something like this:

"See my website at [http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw."](http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw.%22)

… the period and the closing double-quote marks are included in the URL, which makes it a bad link. Similarly:

(See my website at [http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw](http://www.netcom.com/~rogermw))

… includes the closing parenthesis as part of the URL, which also screws up the link.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/url-parsing-smarts/20217/2 "2000-05-22T20:38:31Z")

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Just put in a {url} and {/url} around the hyperlink (replace { and } with the square brackets, [and]).