title: how to remove ♥ (or â™¥) from a string in php?
body: <p>this text block represents the original external source that is a variable:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>// the following characters are not-consistent 
  text here
  // the following characters are consistent
  ♥ text1
  ♥ text2
  ♥ text3
  // the following characters are consistent
  some more text here
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>i want to remove everything except for <code>"text here"</code> and i have to do this in 'parts' as other text may be present (ie i can't just remove everything after <code>"text here"</code>).  </p>
  
  <p>i can remove <code>"some more text here"</code> but am having trouble trying to target and remove the lines beginning with ♥ (or â™¥ as they are currently being stored in the database).  </p>
  
  <p>so these are my variables   </p>
  
  <pre><code>// this is the original external source
  
  $part_one = $external_source; 
  
  // this is the variable that is not working yet
  
  $part_one_a = ;
  
  // this replaces "some more text here" with nothing
  
  $part_one_b = str_replace("some more text here", " ", $part_one);
  
  // this concatenates the variables $part_one_a and $part_one_b
  
  $final = $part_one_a . $part_one_b;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>thank you.  </p>
  
  <p><strong>update</strong></p>
  
  <p>to be more specific i need a way to remove text such as this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>♥ link_one:  http://link_one_here.com/
  ♥ link_two:  http://link_two_here.com/
  ♥ link_three:  http://link_three_here.com/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>update two</strong></p>
  
  <p>i've managed to remove all unwanted items with str_replace on an array.  </p>
  
  <p>the only thing i cannot target and therefore remove is the ♥.  </p>
  
  <p>i have tried targeting it with:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><code>â™¥</code> (this is the value that is currently being stored in the
  database) </li>
  <li><code>&amp;acirc;™&amp;yen;</code> (after i applied a htmlentities to the string)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>and no luck - the ♥ is still being displayed.  if anyone can tell me how i can target ♥ it would be much appreciated and this question would be resolved.  </p>
  
  <p>thank you.  </p>