Find everything between two XML tags with RegEx

This gets the whole table. But it can be modified to let it grab another tag. This is quite a case specific solution which can only be used onder specific circumstances. Breaks if html, php or css comments containt the opening or closing tag. Use it with caution.

Function:

// **********************************************************************************
// Gets a whole html tag with its contents.
//  - Source should be a well formatted html string (get it with file_get_contents or cURL)
//  - You CAN provide a custom startTag with in it e.g. an id or something else (<table style='border:0;')
//    This is recommended if it is not the only p/table/h2/etc. tag in the script.
//  - Ignores closing tags if there is an opening tag of the same sort you provided. Got it?
function getTagWithContents($source, $tag, $customStartTag = false)
{

    $startTag = '<'.$tag;
    $endTag   = '</'.$tag.'>';

    $startTagLength = strlen($startTag);
    $endTagLength   = strlen($endTag);

//      ***************************** 
    if ($customStartTag)
        $gotStartTag = strpos($source, $customStartTag);
    else
        $gotStartTag = strpos($source, $startTag);

    // Can't find it?
    if (!$gotStartTag)
        return false;       
    else
    {

//      ***************************** 

        // This is the hard part: finding the correct closing tag position.
        // <table class="schedule">
        //     <table>
        //     </table> <-- Not this one
        // </table> <-- But this one

        $foundIt          = false;
        $locationInScript = $gotStartTag;
        $startPosition    = $gotStartTag;

        // Checks if there is an opening tag before the start tag.
        while ($foundIt == false)
        {
            $gotAnotherStart = strpos($source, $startTag, $locationInScript + $startTagLength);
            $endPosition        = strpos($source, $endTag,   $locationInScript + $endTagLength);

            // If it can find another opening tag before the closing tag, skip that closing tag.
            if ($gotAnotherStart && $gotAnotherStart < $endPosition)
            {               
                $locationInScript = $endPosition;
            }
            else
            {
                $foundIt  = true;
                $endPosition = $endPosition + $endTagLength;
            }
        }

//      ***************************** 

        // cut the piece from its source and return it.
        return substr($source, $startPosition, ($endPosition - $startPosition));

    } 
}

Application of the function:

$gotTable = getTagWithContents($tableData, 'table', '<table class="schedule"');
if (!$gotTable)
{
    $error = 'Faild to log in or to get the tag';
}
else
{
    //Do something you want to do with it, e.g. display it or clean it...
    $cleanTable = preg_replace('|href='(.*)'|', '', $gotTable);
    $cleanTable = preg_replace('|TITLE="(.*)"|', '', $cleanTable);
}

Above you can find my final solution to my problem. Below the old solution out of which I made a function for universal use.

Old solution:

// Try to find the table and remember its starting position. Check for succes.
// No success means the user is not logged in.
$gotTableStart = strpos($source, '<table class="schedule"');
if (!$gotTableStart)
{
    $err = 'Can't find the table start';
}
else
{

//      ***************************** 
    // This is the hard part: finding the closing tag.
    $foundIt          = false;
    $locationInScript = $gotTableStart;
    $tableStart       = $gotTableStart;

    while ($foundIt == false)
    {
        $innerTablePos = strpos($source, '<table', $locationInScript + 6);
        $tableEnd      = strpos($source, '</table>', $locationInScript + 7);

        // If it can find '<table' before '</table>' skip that closing tag.
        if ($innerTablePos != false && $innerTablePos < $tableEnd)
        {               
            $locationInScript = $tableEnd;
        }
        else
        {
            $foundIt  = true;
            $tableEnd = $tableEnd + 8;
        }
    }

//      ***************************** 

    // Clear the table from links and popups...
    $rawTable   = substr($tableData, $tableStart, ($tableEnd - $tableStart));

} 

Example:

NSString *xml = @"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><badgeCount>6</badgeCount><rank>2</rank><screenName>myName</screenName>";
NSString *pattern = @"<badgeCount>(\d+)</badgeCount>";

NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression
                                      regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern
                                      options:NSRegularExpressionCaseInsensitive
                                      error:nil];
NSTextCheckingResult *textCheckingResult = [regex firstMatchInString:xml options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, xml.length)];

NSRange matchRange = [textCheckingResult rangeAtIndex:1];
NSString *match = [xml substringWithRange:matchRange];
NSLog(@"Found string '%@'", match);

NSLog output:

Found string '6'