How to get the shortest rather than longest possible regex match with preg_match()

Question

I have string similar to this one:

{{something1}} something2 {{something3}} something4

How can I match only \"something1\" using the

Answer 1

a full answer - if our $var is:

STARTT 
FIRST KKK
SECOND KKK

1) In case we use:

$var = preg_replace('/STARTT(.*)KKK/', 'REPLACED-STRING', $var);

it will change everything from the STARTT to last KKK and Result will be:

REPLACED-STRING

2) In case we use:

$var = preg_replace('/STARTT(.*?)KKK/', 'REPLACED-STRING', $var);

Result will be:

REPLACED-STRING 
SECOND KKK

Answer 2

Use non greedy modifier ? :

preg_match("/\{\{(.*?)\}\}/si",$content,$matches);
             here --^

Answer 3

Try this:

preg_match('|{{([^}]+)}}|si', $content, $matches);

echo $matches[1];