RegExp Help: Finding data between multiple tags

[gcohen]

Hi,

When a user types something like:
[pipe]First_Name[/pipe] [pipe]Last_Name[/pipe]

I want to find the data between the pipe tags (i.e. First_Name and Last_Name). I need to pull each of them out no matter how many or how few there are.

The regexp I'm using finds [pipe] as the 0th element, First_Name[/pipe] [pipe]Last_Name as the 1st element, and [/pipe] as the 2nd element:

([pipe])(.+)([/pipe])

I can't seem to find any solution when I search the forums.

Thanks for your help!

[swr]

Use this instead:

[pipe](.+?)[/pipe]

The question mark makes the .+ non-greedy, meaning it will match the smallest string possible instead of the longest string possible. That will solve the problem you were having.

Also, you usually only need brackets around the part you want to extract, not the tags.

[Edit]
Since you want to get the contents of all pipe tags, see the manual for [man]preg_match_all[/man].