What are some best practices for efficiently extracting text from output layers in PHP files without parsing through all layers in the source code?

When extracting text from output layers in PHP files, one efficient way to do so is by using regular expressions to target specific patterns or markers that indicate the text you want to extract. By identifying unique identifiers or delimiters in the output layers, you can quickly extract the desired text without having to parse through all layers of the source code.

$output = file_get_contents('output_file.php');
$pattern = '/<span class="text">(.*?)<\/span>/s';
preg_match_all($pattern, $output, $matches);
$text = implode(' ', $matches[1]);
echo $text;