A simple function to parse a Twitter post

twitter_feed_parser.php

<?php 

/**
 * Formats a tweet with links
 *
 * @author	Dave Widmer
 * @see		http://www.davewidmer.net
 *
 * @param	string	Tweet
 * @return	string	Formatted Tweet
 */
function format_tweet( $tweet )
{
	$search = array(
		'/http[s]?://S+/', // URLs
		'/@[A-Za-z0-9-_]+/', // @names
		'/#[A-Za-z0-9-_]+/', // #hashtag
	);

	$replace = array(
		'&lt;a href="${0}"&gt;${0}&lt;/a&gt;',
		'&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/${0}"&gt;${0}&lt;/a&gt;',
		'&lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=${0}"&gt;${0}&lt;/a&gt;',
	);

	$tweet = preg_replace($search, $replace, $tweet);
	return str_replace( array('/@', '=#') , array('/', '=%23') , $tweet);
}