Problem splitting a string in PHP

My string looking like the below:

Harvard researchers develop platinum-free solid-oxide fuel cells, which could be reliable and cheap enough for mobile technology.

<br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/>
<br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:4e19f3a5e1811fbd8d2609ab6e0b1790:xyHFPVLHAjBSu%2BHuriSZVqm9%2FODnAB81kZMY%2FW6XQhWC4ZbRzX%2BBHz7jOt1kjazUZT27efFh3vpwUMU%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to Twitter' alt='Add to Twitter' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/twitter.png'/></a>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:3e50e6b8d521eded6b35c7688aa906da:FrGGBNm1fSQsiuLmppzKM%2FATrKIoUDahb5X8uecXFxZVxeVzefUBbunDDSQIoM%2B7vZ%2FrMkI9MRbSJd0%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to Facebook' alt='Add to Facebook' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/facebook.gif'/></a>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:7e7e04c16c4c141c4117385690e52041:cBfF0Lt5lnF2klwL0yP1Z6C%2Bf6BV3FBNn1SMd9UUC1sTvBMcqqLi2LdjjD2Xx6LbCORRi%2F1sjoNWBYk%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to Slashdot' alt='Add to Slashdot' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/slashdot.png'/></a>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:abab99ee3bc19459ff3e8b7d8021840f:liR9O7Zfc0bI0Uuo10wyGIUoEOxlQXTWkWXuk6sb878dMYT2smVK1G5l0DxnIogEym5utExwYXrvUdM%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/digg_64x16.png'/></a>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:337479bf5b0ca164e90b9e6ee29a6bd2:Vo4lgAzFi7rA3OwEbIn3MCn8Wrc6ghW%2Bn8U%2FWvVnD%2FZAepXiRJLuKQ9jRNIB3tCaMfJBzkI0lN26WA%3D%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to del.icio.us' alt='Add to del.icio.us' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/delicious.gif'/></a>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:f1603669def1f797d29577bc6ffac6d8:L0FI9gIqTiSjo7LLh4IW%2FjEmU%2BevF%2Be%2B3Qh%2BEBIpZtBVoZeKf3mDbDWW%2FMjgIjP%2FujuheGGUDnffEyc%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to StumbleUpon' alt='Add to StumbleUpon' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/stumbleit.gif'/></a>
 <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:6935f5f46c828b54e7f0a20ec855a0bc:31pmU19Ai%2BBD4P%2Bra8NUD3ywNzoeb%2B%2B%2F3UGXkY0dOTgERp7CGY8D%2FkhkfhSbDSkXYVynDgrcwPHJ3Q%3D%3D'><img border='0' title='Email this Article' alt='Email this Article' src='http://images.pheedo.com/images/mm/emailthis.png'/></a>
<br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/>
<a href="http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=08f79e2459078baab633a35da651dfa4&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=08f79e2459078baab633a35da651dfa4&p=1"/></a>
<img alt="" height="0" width="0" border="0" style="display:none" src="http://segment-pixel.invitemedia.com/pixel?code=TechBiz
&partnerID=167&key=segment"/><img alt="" height="0" width="0" border="0" style="display:none" src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-8bUhLiluj0fAw.gif?labels=pub.29821.rss.TechBiz
.15217,cat.TechBiz
.rss"/>

From the above string i only want the first line of it, ie:"Harvard researchers develop platinum-free solid-oxide fuel cells, which开发者_开发百科 could be reliable and cheap enough for mobile technology."

Rest all is not required.

To do so, I have tried:

$description = split(' \n', $string);
$description = split('<', $string);     
$description = split('.  ', $string);

But none of them gives me the required result, which would be only the first line, without and spaces or lines after the full-stop.

Can some one plz help me with this.

Also, if someone could edit my text, as i am unable to paste my example string, as it actually is.

Regards Zeeshan

---

In regex the dot character is a special character, you would need to escape it :

$description = split('\.', $string); 

Also, split seems to be deprecated, you should be using preg_split: http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-split.php

---

Something like:

$description = current(explode("\n", $string)); 

should work fine. Pay special attention to the double instead of single quotes.

If you're doing more of this kind of parsing, you should consider a HTML parser, such as a simplehtmldom.