Is there a predefined function for this?

[amahmood]

I wonder if there is a predefined function to extract part of a string given the beginning and the end of the piece we want. for example from the following string:

$myString = "onetwo threefourfive sixseveneight";

I want the piece between "two" and "five" ie: " three four".

at the moment I extract the part by looping throught the string array.

Any advise?

[ShrineDesigns]

you could you preg_match() or preg_match_all()

example<?php
function get_piece($str, $start, $end)
{
if(preg_match("/" . $start . "(.*)" . $end . "/", $str, $m))
{
return $m[1];
}
}
$str = "onetwo threefourfive sixseveneight";
echo get_piece($str, 'two', 'five'); // should output: ' threefour'
?>

[amahmood]

Thanks ShrineDesigns

That works just fine.

[amahmood]

And how about some chracters such as "."?

[ShrineDesigns]

try this<?php
function get_piece($str, $start, $end)
{
// escapes any regex characters
$start = preg_quote($start);
$end = preg_quote($end);

if(preg_match("/" . $start . "(.*)" . $end . "/", $str, $m))
{
return $m[1];
}
}
$str = "onetwo threefourfive sixseveneight";
echo get_piece($str, 'two', 'five'); // should output: ' threefour'
?>