How to extract a value between square brackets in php - php

Question

I am writing some code that expects to receive a block of html which is always going to include the following:
var code = [39.474, -0.3548];
The value between the square brackets is always going to be different. How could I extract the value between the square brackets using php?
I should probably point out that I am parsing a block of HTML to php that includes js aswell.

Answer 1

Use a regular expression like
preg_match_all('/\\[(.*?)\\]/', $your_string, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
The array $matches[1] then will contain your values.

Answer 2

If the Javascript array format will be kept constant (always two components and a space after ','), you can use /(?:\[)(.*)[,][ ](.*)(?:\])/ regex to extract them in php:
$line = 'var code = [39.474, -0.3548];';
preg_match("/(?:\[)(.*)[,][ ](.*)(?:\])/", $line, $output_array);
print_r ($output_array);
The result will be
array(
0 => [39.474, -0.3548]
1 => 39.474
2 => -0.3548
)

Answer 3

A quick and dirty solution may be:
Replace "[" and "]"
explode by ","
$a = "[39.474, -0.3548]";
$b = str_replace("]", "", str_replace("[", "", $a));
$c = explode(",", $b);
print_r($c);
Output:
Array ( [0] => 39.474 [1] => -0.3548 )