- var_dump: documentation ( source)
<?php
$html = <<< HTML
<div>
<ul>
<li></li>
<li>Something <br/> Something</li>
</ul>
</div>
HTML;
$dom = new DOMDocument;
$dom->loadHtml($html);
$xp = new DOMXpath($dom);
var_dump($xp->evaluate('string(//li/text()[1])'));
var_dump($xp->evaluate('string(//li/text()[2])'));