How to get a substring between two strings in PHP?
Last Updated :
16 Jul, 2024
To get a substring between two strings there are few popular ways to do so. Below the procedures are explained with the example.
Examples:
Input:$string="hey, How are you?"
If we need to extract the substring between
"How" and "you" then the output should be are
Output:"Are"
Input:Hey, Welcome to GeeksforGeeks
If we need to get the substring between Welcome and
for then it should be to geeks as for lies within GeeksforGeeks.
Output:" to geeks"
Method 1: Firstly you have to find the ending position of the start word. Then find the starting position of the ending word after that return the substring between those indexes.
Below program illustrate the approach:
Example:
PHP
<?php
function string_between_two_string($str, $starting_word, $ending_word)
{
$subtring_start = strpos($str, $starting_word);
//Adding the starting index of the starting word to
//its length would give its ending index
$subtring_start += strlen($starting_word);
//Length of our required sub string
$size = strpos($str, $ending_word, $subtring_start) - $subtring_start;
// Return the substring from the index substring_start of length size
return substr($str, $subtring_start, $size);
}
$str = 'Hey, Welcome to geeksforgeeks';
$substring = string_between_two_string($str, 'Welcome', 'for');
echo $substring;
?>
Output:
to geeks
Method 2: Using the explode() function.
The explode function splits the given string on the basis of the parameter provided i.e. the separator.
Syntax:
$arr=explode(separator, string).
This will return an array which will contain the string split on the basis of the separator.
- Split the list on the basis of the starting word.
- In the returned array the 2nd index will contain the words after the start word.
- In the string provided by step 2 if we again split it on the basis of the ending word then the value at first index will be the string between the starting and the ending word.
Example:
PHP
<?php
function string_between_two_string($str, $starting_word, $ending_word){
$arr = explode($starting_word, $str);
if (isset($arr[1])){
$arr = explode($ending_word, $arr[1]);
return $arr[0];
}
return '';
}
$str = "Hey, how are you?";
$start = "Hey";
$end = "you";
$substring = string_between_two_string($str, $start, $end);
echo $substring;
?>
Output:
, how are
Using preg_match()
Using `preg_match()` in PHP with the pattern `'/StartHere(.*?)EndHere/'` captures the substring between "StartHere" and "EndHere". It efficiently extracts content based on defined delimiters, suitable for scenarios requiring flexible and precise substring extraction using regular expressions.
Example:
PHP
<?php
$string = "StartHereHelloWorldEndHere";
$pattern = '/StartHere(.*?)EndHere/';
// Perform the regex match
preg_match($pattern, $string, $matches);
if (isset($matches[1])) {
echo $matches[1]; // Outputs: "HelloWorld"
} else {
echo "Substring not found";
}
?>
Using strpos() and substr()
Another approach to extract a substring between two strings is by using strpos() and substr() functions in PHP. This method involves finding the positions of the starting and ending strings, and then extracting the substring between these positions.
Example: This method provides a straightforward way to extract substrings between two specified strings using basic string manipulation functions in PHP. Adjust $start and $end parameters according to the specific strings you need to extract from your input.
PHP
<?php
function substring_between($string, $start, $end) {
$startPos = strpos($string, $start);
if ($startPos === false) {
return ""; // Start string not found
}
$endPos = strpos($string, $end, $startPos + strlen($start));
if ($endPos === false) {
return ""; // End string not found
}
// Calculate the length of the substring to extract
$length = $endPos - ($startPos + strlen($start));
// Extract and return the substring
return substr($string, $startPos + strlen($start), $length);
}
// Example usage:
$string1 = "Hey, How are you?";
$result1 = substring_between($string1, "How", "you");
echo $result1; // Output: " are "
$string2 = "Hey, Welcome to GeeksforGeeks";
$result2 = substring_between($string2, "Welcome", "for");
echo $result2; // Output: " to Geeks"
?>
Using strstr()
Using strstr() in PHP, you can find a substring between two delimiters. First, locate the start delimiter, extract the substring from there, then find the end delimiter and extract the relevant portion.
Example:
PHP
<?php
function getSubstringBetween($string, $start, $end) {
$substr = strstr($string, $start);
$substr = substr($substr, strlen($start));
return strstr($substr, $end, true);
}
$string = "Hello [start]World[end]!";
echo getSubstringBetween($string, "[start]", "[end]") . PHP_EOL; // Output: World
?>
Using preg_split()
The preg_split() function in PHP allows you to split a string by a regular expression, which can be used to extract a substring between two specified delimiters. This method involves splitting the string at both the starting and ending delimiters and then extracting the desired portion.
Example
PHP
<?php
function getStringBetween($string, $start, $end) {
// Split the string at the starting delimiter
$splitStart = preg_split("/$start/", $string);
if (isset($splitStart[1])) {
// Split the remaining part at the ending delimiter
$splitEnd = preg_split("/$end/", $splitStart[1]);
return $splitEnd[0];
}
return '';
}
$string1 = "hey, How are you?";
$start1 = "How";
$end1 = "you";
echo "Extracted substring: '" . getStringBetween($string1, $start1, $end1) . "'\n";
$string2 = "Hey, Welcome to GeeksforGeeks";
$start2 = "Welcome";
$end2 = "for";
echo "Extracted substring: '" . getStringBetween($string2, $start2, $end2) . "'\n";
?>
OutputExtracted substring: ' are '
Extracted substring: ' to Geeks'
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