How to remove surrounding Square Brackets using php

Question

I need a way to remove the surrounding square brackets from this using only php:

[txt]text[/txt]

So the result should be: text

They will always occur in matched pairs.

They always will be at the start and end of the string. Thet will always be [txt1][/txt1] or [url2][/url2]

How can i do it?

Will the square brackets always occur in matched pairs ([thing]...[/thing]?) Will they always be at the start and end of the string? Might they be nested? Might they be improperly nested ([thing1]...[thing2]...[/thing1]...[/thing2])? What should happen if they are? — Hammerite, Aug 17 '13 at 16:29
@Hammerite Yes, they will always occur in matched pairs. They always will be at the start and end of the string. Thet will always be [thing1][/thing1] or [thing2][/thing2] — Joscplan, Aug 17 '13 at 16:35
are you looking for a [bbcode parser](http://php.net/bbcode)? If so then possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7545920 — Gordon, Aug 17 '13 at 16:35
@Gordon Something like it but I just need this specific part. — Joscplan, Aug 17 '13 at 16:38

vee · Answer 1 · 2013-08-17T18:24:56.917

1

Try this:

preg_replace("/\[(\/\s*)?txt\d*\]/i", "", "[txt]text[/txt]");

Update:

This will work for "whatever" in the brackets:

preg_replace("/\[.+?\]/i", "", "[txt]text[/txt]");

edited Aug 17 '13 at 18:24

answered Aug 17 '13 at 16:30

vee

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Yes but this will only work with txt not with what ever is within the brackets. – Joscplan Aug 17 '13 at 16:37
How can I make it to work with what ever it is within the brackets? Thanks. – Joscplan Aug 17 '13 at 17:03
@JoseCardama, please see the updated answer. That will match and remove whatever is in the brackets. But note that this will also remove any such tags that are not in pairs. – vee Aug 17 '13 at 18:26

Sylverdrag · Answer 2 · 2013-08-18T00:07:29.493

0

You can use regex:

$string = '[whatever]content[/whatever]';
$pattern = '/\[[^\[\]]*\]/i';
$replacement = '';
echo preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string);

This will remove all [whatever] from a string.

edited Aug 18 '13 at 00:07

answered Aug 17 '13 at 16:36

Sylverdrag

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My bad, I made a typo in the regex. Try now. – Sylverdrag Aug 18 '13 at 00:07

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 17 '13 at 16:49

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You do not need to use regexp. You can explode the string on first ], after that use the result to explode on [.

Advantage using this method is that it is fast and simple.

answered Aug 17 '13 at 16:49

Björn3

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 17 '13 at 18:39

If you simply need to get the text between square brackets of a simple structure, then try this:

$str = '[tag1]fdhfjdkf dfhjdkf[/tag1]';
$start_position = strpos($str, ']') + 1;
$end_postion = strrpos($str, '[');
$cleared = substr($str, $start_position, $end_postion - $start_position);

For more complicated structures this code won't work and you'll have to use some other ways.

How to remove surrounding Square Brackets using php

4 Answers4