title: Capture value from URL string with php
body: <p>I need to extract a variable's value from a string, which happens to be a URL.  The string/url is loaded as part of a separate php query, not the url in the browser.</p>
  
  <p>The url's will look like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;catid=334:golfeq&amp;id=2773:xcelsiors&amp;Itemid=44
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I always find &amp; capture the value of the id which in this example is 2773?</p>
  
  <p>I read several examples already, but what I've tried captures the id value of the current page which is being viewed in the browser, and not the URL string.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>