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URL detecting error with address like “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing)”

If a link ends with a closing bracket, the auto-generated link doesn't work. This is mainly an issue for including links to Wikipedia articles.

Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography) The link is broken, because the closing bracket is missing from the URL.

If, on the other hand, the link contains brackets but doesn't end in them, the links works fine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)#History

My apologies if this is a duplicate! I did search, but couldn't find anything relevant. If it can't be fixed (the problem is a little more nuanced than I immediately realised), I'm still interested in having a good answer and simple solution should I come across the problem again.

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  • This was discussed in early October 2010 but I can't find a link. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:01
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    It seemed like too common an issue not to have been encountered before! Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:02
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    Ah, here we go. (In the post I was thinking of, someone asked about Wikipedia specifically, but it got closed as a dupe of my first link.) Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:05
  • I believe this is still a bug - the post you've linked to discusses brackets in general, and this was eventually implemented. Presumably, it was intended that all links with brackets in them should work, while links ending in closing brackets still don't. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:11
  • I'm not clear why the other post you linked to was closed as a duplicate - although %29 was offered as a workaround, it seems an unreasonable expectation for the less programmer-y sites. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:22
  • Agreed. I was just giving background; I didn't vote to close. Since posting my last comment, I brought back my old sandbox test answer with less-than-perfect results. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:24
  • Well, that question was asked on Oct 3, 2010, when there barely were any less-programmer-y sites. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:25
  • @PopularDemand odd, see my answer. (which I thought was the answer until I submitted it) Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:31
  • Yeah, @amanaPlanaCAnalPAnaMA, I commented on that answer, and then deleted it when I saw that you had posted your own comment a second earlier, realizing what you'd done. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:32
  • @PopularDemand It's a more difficult problem than I'd realised - linked in one of the posts you mention is Jeff's blog post on auto-parsing URLs. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:34
  • @PopularDemand this is very very odd. I am not sure why it is acting like that.... Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:34
  • For full disclosure, I found this post mentioning that the problem turns up in comments, although the poster didn't notice that the problem also exists in regular questions/answers. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:46

3 Answers 3

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A workaround is to put a dummy # at the end after the closing bracket: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)#

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)#
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  • This is a neat solution - a huge advantage that it doesn't require using characters that aren't part of a real link. Commented Mar 29, 2012 at 13:50
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If you do http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography\) and escape the last parenthesis, it works fine (only in the edit window):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)

I believe this is a in the the markdown script.

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    Odd, it works in the edit window and not in the final answer. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:28
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The autolinker intentionally avoids matching your example, so I imagine this is due to the various edge cases where this might be problematic.

Ideally, you should be linking to the Dagger article on Wikipedia,

[to the Dagger article on Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography))

Or using angle brackets if you insist on the bare link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagger_(typography)>
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    Then why does it work in the edit window here? Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:32
  • It's less about my particular preference, and more about noting confused users of the English Language SE. Angle brackets might be the most useful suggestion - I didn't immediately realise how difficult the issue is! Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:40
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    @amanaPlanaCAnalPAnaMA It's a side-effect of how the backslash escaping works in the client-side renderer; the \) sequence is temporarily replaced with something that matches the autolinker regex, but I think the replacement is slightly different (and non-matching) in the server-side renderer. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:51
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    @TimStone that is very very odd... Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:52
  • @Hannele That's fair enough :) But yeah, the issue is rather complex unfortunately, so I imagine changing this behaviour without impacting anything else would be problematic. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 19:54

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