How to hide text between multiple <> // [] ** - php

Question

I use this code and all is ok, it hide text from $comments contains between [], but i want to hide text from other symbols for. ex. ** && ^^ $$ ## // <>. What i need to add here, to have INSTEAD OF
Date <20.02.2013> Time [11-00] Name #John#
Have this:
Date Time Name
?
function replaceTags($startPoint, $endPoint, $newText, $source) {
return preg_replace('#('.preg_quote($startPoint).')(.*)('.preg_quote($endPoint).')#si', '$1'.$newText.'$3', $source);
}
$source= $comments;
$startPoint='[';
$endPoint=']';
$newText='';
echo replaceTags($startPoint, $endPoint, $newText, $source);

Answer 1

You just need to change
$startPoint='[';
$endPoint=']';
to
$startPoint='<';
$endPoint='>';
To do multiple symbols you can do multiple calls to the function, like this:
$source= $comments;
$newText='';
$str = replaceTags('[', ']', $newText, $source);
$str = replaceTags('<', '>', $newText, $str);
$str = replaceTags('*', '*', $newText, $str);
$str = replaceTags('&', '&', $newText, $str);
$str = replaceTags('^', '^', $newText, $str);
$str = replaceTags('$', '$', $newText, $str);
$str = preg_replace("/\#[^#]+#)/","",$str);
$str = replaceTags('/', '/', $newText, $str);
// add more here
echo $str;

Answer 2

You will have to create patterns for each pair:
$pairs = array(
'*' => '*',
'&' => '&',
'^' => '^',
'$' => '$',
'#' => '#',
'/' => '/',
'[' => ']', // this
'<' => '>', // and this pairs differently from the rest
);
$patterns = array();
foreach ($pairs as $start => $end) {
$start = preg_quote($start, '/');
$end = preg_quote($end, '/');
$patterns[] = "/($start)[^$end]*($end)/";
}
echo preg_replace($patterns, '', $s), PHP_EOL;
// not sure what you want here
//  echo preg_replace($patterns, '$1' . $newText . '$2', $s), PHP_EOL;