PHP - Removing <?php ?> tags from a string

Question

What's the best way to remove these tags from a string, to prepare it for being passed to eval() ?

for eg. the string can be something like this:

<?php
  echo 'hello world';
  ?>
  Hello Again
  <?php

  echo 'Bye';
?>

Obviously str_replace won't work because the two php tags in the middle need to be there (the the 1st and the last need to be removed)

Answer 1

Usually, you wouldn't want to pass a function to eval. If you're wishing to just remove the tags, string_replace would do the job just fine, however you might be better off using a regex.

preg_replace(array('/<(\?|\%)\=?(php)?/', '/(\%|\?)>/'), array('',''), $str);

This covers old-asp tags, php short-tags, php echo tags, and normal php tags.