What are some alternative methods in PHP to manipulate text without using regular expressions?

When working with text manipulation in PHP, regular expressions can be powerful but complex to use. An alternative method is to utilize built-in string functions such as `str_replace`, `substr`, `strpos`, and `explode`. These functions can help manipulate text without the need for regular expressions.

// Example of using str_replace to manipulate text without regular expressions
$text = "Hello, World!";
$new_text = str_replace("Hello", "Hi", $text);
echo $new_text; // Output: Hi, World!