How to extract text between 2 tags in php

Question

I need to locate 2 tags in a lump of text and keep whatever text is between them.

For example if the \"Begin\" tag was -----start----- and the \"End\" t

Answer 1

If your string is actually HTML data, you have to add htmlentities($lump) so it won't return empty:

$lump = 'rtyfbytgyuibg-----start-----
isnv4b987b6vdc5y6ughnjmn9b8v76ctyubinn98b76r
-----end-----gcgkhjkn';
$lump = htmlentities($lump) //<-- HERE
$start_tag = '-----start-----';
$end_tag = '-----end-----';

// method 1
if (preg_match('/'.preg_quote($start_tag).'(.*?)'.preg_quote($end_tag).'/s', $lump, $matches)) {
        echo $matches[1];
}

// method 2 (faster)
$startpos = strpos($lump, $start_tag) + strlen($start_tag);
if ($startpos !== false) {
   $endpos = strpos($lump, $end_tag, $startpos);
        if ($endpos !== false) {
            echo substr($lump, $startpos, $endpos - $startpos);
        }
}

// method 3 (if you need to find multiple occurrences)
if (preg_match_all('/'.preg_quote($start_tag).'(.*?)'.preg_quote($end_tag).'/s', $lump, $matches)) {
        print_r($matches[1]);
 }

// method 4 
$output = strstr( substr( $string, strpos( $string, $start) + strlen( $start)), $end, true);

//Turn back to regular HTML
echo htmlspecialchars_decode($output);