I am not sure why explode isn't working for you, here it is working: https://eval.in/94159
$string = "β¬500 - β¬878";
$ary = explode("-",$string);
$min = filter_var($ary[0], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT);
$max = filter_var($ary[1], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT);
echo "between " . $min . " and " .$max;