Question

I need to aggregate an array of objects. I would assume using RegEx to collect all instances of text that are surrounded by square brackets would be the ideal method. (see example below).

Can someone please explain how I would read through the text to execute the above?

$links = some [[text]] here and another [[link]] here

So $links[0] should equal [[text]]

Answer 1

This pattern will get you the text inside double brackets as the inner groupings, and the the outer brackets included, as the full pattern match:

$matches = array();
$links = "some [[text]] here and another [[link]] here";
preg_match_all("/\[\[([^\]]+)\]\]/", $links, $matches);
//---------------^^^^ Opening brackets [[ escaped
//-------------------^^^^^^^^ One or more characters excluding ] grouped in ()
//---------------------------^^^^ Closing brackets ]] escaped

var_dump($matches);
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    string(8) "[[text]]"
    [1]=>
    string(8) "[[link]]"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    string(4) "text"
    [1]=>
    string(4) "link"
  }
}

So you can use whichever one you need.

echo $matches[0][1];
// [[link]]
echo $matches[1][1];
// link