Return value in between two strings
===

I know this may be a common question but I can't find the exact answer I want.

I have the following string.

    #|First Name|#
    Random Text
    #|Last Name|#

What I would like to do is have all the values that are in between the `#|` & `|#` and replace the whole string with a value. This must be in an array so I can loop through them all.

So as an example I have:

    #|First Name|#

After processing I would like it to be:

    John

So the main logic would be to use the First Name value to print out a value from a database.

Can someone help me out here.

This is code I've tried:

    preg_match('/#|(.*)|#/i', $html, $ret);

Thanks