Simple: How to replace "all between" with php?

A generic function:

function replace_between($str, $needle_start, $needle_end, $replacement) {
    $pos = strpos($str, $needle_start);
    $start = $pos === false ? 0 : $pos + strlen($needle_start);

    $pos = strpos($str, $needle_end, $start);
    $end = $pos === false ? strlen($str) : $pos;

    return substr_replace($str, $replacement, $start, $end - $start);
}

DEMO

$search = "/[^<tag>](.*)[^<\/tag>]/";
$replace = "your new inner text";
$string = "<tag>i dont know what is here</tag>";
echo preg_replace($search,$replace,$string);

outputs:

<tag>your new inner text</tag>