title: Remove first and last char from string
body: <p>I have this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$dataList = "*one*two*three*";
  $list = explode("*", $dataList);
  echo"&lt;pre&gt;";print_r($list);echo"&lt;/pre&gt;";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which outputs:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; Array (
  &gt;     [0] =&gt; 
  &gt;     [1] =&gt; one
  &gt;     [2] =&gt; two
  &gt;     [3] =&gt; three
  &gt;     [4] =&gt;  )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How do I strip the fist and last * in the string before exploding?</p>