[SOLVED] return text between 2 strings???????????????????

[davidkierz]

how would i code a function that returns the text in $string between $start and $end not including $start and $end ??????

[Bendude14]

can you be more specific? are you searching for words or characters?

 

whats at the start and end?

 

give us an example of what you want to start with and what you are trying to return?

[davidkierz]

looking for a function that will do this

 

$string = "adam baker charlie david edward frank";

$result = function($string, "baker", "david");

$result = charlie

 

 

[davidkierz]

basically i am processing raw html to look for a certain string and since the html file changes everytime the script runs, i cant use substr directly i think i have to use a combination of substr and strpos but cat figure it out

[Orio]

Two options... String functions or regex. Test both to see which one's faster:

 

<?php

$string = "adam baker charlie david edward frank";
$result1 = get_between1($string, "baker", "david");
$result2 = get_between2($string, "baker", "david");

echo $result1."<br>".$result2;

function get_between1($str, $a, $b)
{
$pos_a = strpos($str, $a) + strlen($a);
return trim(substr($str, $pos_a, strpos($str, $b) - $pos_a));
}

function get_between2($str, $a, $b)
{
preg_match("/".preg_quote($a)."(.*?)".preg_quote($b)."/i", $str, $matches);
return trim($matches[1]);
}

?>

 

 

Orio.

[thebadbad]

Nice functions Orio, but you should add the second delimiter parameter to the preg_quote() functions, to deal with possible forward slashes in $string.

[Orio]

Good point. In that case second function will become:

 

<?php

function get_between2($str, $a, $b)
{
   preg_match("/".preg_quote($a, '/')."(.*?)".preg_quote($b, '/')."/i", $str, $matches);
   return trim($matches[1]);
}

?>

 

Orio.