preg_replace - turn <img> into <a href....><img</a> - html

Question

I'm struggling to turn an image tag into a link and copy parameters within the tag i.e.
<img src="/images/image1.jpg" alt="The name of image">
into
<img src="/images/image1.jpg" alt="The name of image">
My problem is not just duplicating the src and alt data but account for missing and extra tags i.e.
<img src="/images/image1.jpg" >
into
<img src="/images/image1.jpg" >
and
<img style="padding:5px;" src="/images/image1.jpg" alt="The name of the image">
into
<img style="padding:5px;" src="/images/image1.jpg" alt="The name of the image">
This needs to be done for all instances of the img tag throughout a string.
Not meaning to sound like a challenge but can anyone propose a possible solution, I'm sure this can be done with preg_replace but I just can't work it through?
Thank you

Answer 1

The simplest way to do that:
HTML:
<span id="My_ID"><img class="My_img" src="/images/image1.jpg" alt="The name of image" /></span>
JavaScript and JQUERY(Not necessary but i used it for browser compatibility):
var first= true;
$('.My_img').hover(function(){
if(first == true){
//First time this prevent Dulicated runing and shows errors
first = false;//it is not thew first time anymore
var alt = $('.My_img').attr('alt');//Get the img alt
var src = $('.My_img').attr('src');//Get the img src
document.getElementById('My_ID').innerHTML = '';
}
});
To demostrate the above her is a fiddle:
http://jsfiddle.net/Mh9Np/
Simply but innerHTML is a bad practice as everyone say so i will give you an idea about the other way:(Samse HTML)
1-Store the img in a variable
2-Store the alt and src attribute in variables.
2-Create the a element.
3-Set to it the attributes you want with the help of alt and src variables.
4-Append the img to a.
5-Append a to the span.
6-Delete the original img.//Optional it might help resolving some styling issues.