How can regular expressions, like the one used in $pcre = '#(\d+)\s{2,}?(.+)\s{2,}#U', be utilized in PHP to extract specific data from a text file?

Regular expressions can be used in PHP to extract specific data from a text file by defining a pattern that matches the desired data. In the given example, the regular expression $pcre = '#(\d+)\s{2,}?(.+)\s{2,}#U' is looking for a pattern that consists of one or more digits followed by at least two whitespace characters, then followed by one or more characters, and finally followed by at least two whitespace characters. This pattern can be used with functions like preg_match() or preg_match_all() in PHP to extract the desired data from the text file.

// Sample text data
$text = "123     Lorem Ipsum     ";

// Regular expression pattern
$pcre = '#(\d+)\s{2,}?(.+)\s{2,}#U';

// Extracting specific data using preg_match
if (preg_match($pcre, $text, $matches)) {
    $number = $matches[1]; // Extracted number
    $content = $matches[2]; // Extracted content
    echo "Number: " . $number . "\n";
    echo "Content: " . $content . "\n";
} else {
    echo "No match found.\n";
}