[Resolved] Extracting a delimited string

[davidjam]

This seemed simple at first, but I can't find a good solution. It must be fast, so I first looked at all the String Functions, but to no avail...

I want to extract the string value between the parenthesis. Here is the variable to work with:

$var = "link(http://www.ask.com) etc"

And I want the result to be:

Result: http://www.ask.com

Is this possible without using Regular Expressions?

[crosbystillsnas]

$line = "link (www.starkidmusic.com) etc";

$startPar = strpos ($line, "(");
$endPar = strpos ($line, ")");

$extract = substr ($line, $startPar+1, $endPar-$startPar-1);

print ($extract);

...but i dont know if its faster.

[davidjam]

That really is exactly what I was looking for. It never occurred to me to subtract the end position from the start position! DOH!

BTW The PHP manual says to use String Functions wherever possible. Something to do with the "overhead of the regular expression engine"...

Thanksalot crosbystillsnas.