Question

How can I get the string that is placed within two star symbols – * – like StackOverflow here?

For instance,

$string_1 = 'this is the *string I want to display only*';

or

$string_2 = 'this is the * string I want to display only *'; 

note that there are spaces on the second string.

I want to return this only,

string I want to display only

Using regex is what I can think of… any ideas?

Answer 1

Try this

   $string_1 = 'this is the *string I want to display only*';

    if(preg_match_all('/\*(.*?)\*/',$string_1,$match)) {            
            var_dump($match[1]);            
    }