在PHP / MySQL echo URL变量中检查/插入http

Question

I currently have a dynamic PHP page that displays values from a database to display a URL like this:

<a target="_blank" href="<?php echo($row['Virtual_Tour']); ?>"><?php echo($row['Virtual_Tour']); ?></a>

This works great EXCEPT when the data does not include a http://. I have not control over the data. How do I test to see if the echo starts with http:// and if not inserts that as well to guarantee the URL is properly formatted?

Answer 1

if(substr($row['Virtual_Tour'],0,7)=="http://")
{
  //starts with http://, no formatting needed
}
else 
{
  $row['Virtual_Tour']="http://".$row['Virtual_Tour'];
}