- substr: documentation ( source)
- ltrim: documentation ( source)
- var_dump: documentation ( source)
<?php
$string = '/** @some thing */';
$numChars = strlen($string);
$char = ($numChars - strlen(ltrim($string, '/*')));
$openTag = substr($string, 0, $char);
$string = ltrim($string, '/*');
var_dump($numChars, $char, $openTag, $string);