- var_dump: documentation ( source)
- preg_match_all: documentation ( source)
<?php
$text = '[This] is a [test] string, [eat] my [shorts].';
preg_match_all("/\[[^\]]*\]/", $text, $matches);
var_dump($matches[0]);
$text = '[This] is a [test] string, [eat] my [shorts].';
preg_match_all("/\[([^\]]*)\]/", $text, $matches);
var_dump($matches[1]);