re = /(https?:\/\/\S+)|:[\w+-]+:/m
str = ':smile: :thumbs_up: :+1: :-1:
but NOT if the colons are part of the url, like this URL for example: http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20190417:nPn5XHnXBa
I was browsing and found this url :smile: http://pdf.reuters.com/htmlnews/htmlnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20190417:nPn5XHnXBa it\'s fantastic :smile::+1: Remember: don\'t forget to upvote!'
subst = '\\1'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html