php - regex that matches the text between the tags like p a, br -

i need regex matches text between tags p a, br: albert einstein, division head, princeton member of executive committee of princeton

i have pattern (preg_match_all)

$pattern="/<\s*a[^>]++>(.*?)<\s*\/\s*a\s*>/";

but gives me text inside hrefs,

any hints? // heres sample source

<p>     <a href="file.pdf" target="_blank"><b>albert einstein</b></a><br>     division head, princeton<br>     member of executive committee of princeton<br>     </p> 

using dom parser can values inside tags want :

<?php $html='<p>     <a href="file.pdf" target="_blank"><b>albert einstein</b></a><br>     division head, princeton<br>     member of executive committee of princeton<br>     </p>'; $dom = new domdocument; $dom->loadhtml($html); echo "[".$dom->getelementsbytagname('p')->item(0)->nodevalue."]"; 

you can change tag value , see .

demo here : https://eval.in/139559

just changing value p b, can text inside b tag , i.e. [albert einstein]