split
(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)
split -- Split string into array by regular expression
Description
array
split ( string pattern, string string [, int limit] )
Splits a string into array by regular expression.
Parameters
pattern
Case sensitive regular expression.
If you want to split on any of the characters which are considered
special by regular expressions, you'll need to escape them first. If
you think split() (or any other regex function, for
that matter) is doing something weird, please read the file
regex.7, included in the
regex/ subdirectory of the PHP distribution. It's
in manpage format, so you'll want to do something along the lines of
man /usr/local/src/regex/regex.7 in order to read it.
string
The input string.
limit
If limit is set, the returned array will
contain a maximum of limit elements with the
last element containing the whole rest of
string.
Return Values
Returns an array of strings, each of which is a substring of
string formed by splitting it on boundaries formed
by the case-sensitive regular expression pattern.
If there are n occurrences of
pattern, the returned array will contain
n+1 items. For example, if
there is no occurrence of pattern, an array with
only one element will be returned. Of course, this is also true if
string is empty. If an error occurs,
split() returns FALSE.
Examples
Example 1. split() example
To split off the first four fields from a line from
/etc/passwd:
<?php
list($user, $pass, $uid, $gid, $extra) =
split(":", $passwd_line, 5);
?>
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Example 2. split() example
To parse a date which may be delimited with slashes, dots, or hyphens:
<?php
// Delimiters may be slash, dot, or hyphen
$date = "04/30/1973";
list($month, $day, $year) = split('[/.-]', $date);
echo "Month: $month; Day: $day; Year: $year<br />\n";
?>
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Notes
Tip:
preg_split(), which uses a Perl-compatible regular
expression syntax, is often a faster alternative to
split(). If you don't require the power of regular
expressions, it is faster to use explode(), which
doesn't incur the overhead of the regular expression engine.
Tip:
For users looking for a way to emulate Perl's @chars =
split('', $str) behaviour, please see the examples for
preg_split() or str_split().
