php man page for sscanf

SSCANF(3)								 1								 SSCANF(3)

sscanf - Parses input from a string according to a format

SYNOPSIS
       mixed sscanf (string  $str, string  $format, [mixed  &$...])

DESCRIPTION
	The function sscanf(3) is the input analog of printf(3). sscanf(3) reads from the string $str and interprets it according to the specified
       $format, which is described in the documentation for sprintf(3).

	Any whitespace in the format string matches any whitespace in the input string. This means that even a tab 	 in  the  format  string  can
       match a single space character in the input string.

PARAMETERS
	      o $str
		- The input string being parsed.

	      o $format
		- The interpreted format for $str, which is described in the documentation for sprintf(3) with following differences:

		     o Function is not locale-aware.

		     o F, g, G and b are not supported.

		     o D stands for decimal number.

		     o i stands for integer with base detection.

		     o n stands for number of characters processed so far.

	      o $...
		- Optionally pass in variables by reference that will contain the parsed values.

RETURN VALUES
	If only two parameters were passed to this function, the values parsed will be returned as an array. Otherwise, if optional parameters are
       passed, the function will return the number of assigned values. The optional parameters must be passed by reference.

	If there are more substrings expected in the $format than there are available within $str, -1 will be returned.

EXAMPLES
       Example #1

	      sscanf(3) Example

	      <?php
	      // getting the serial number
	      list($serial) = sscanf("SN/2350001", "SN/%d");
	      // and the date of manufacturing
	      $mandate = "January 01 2000";
	      list($month, $day, $year) = sscanf($mandate, "%s %d %d");
	      echo "Item $serial was manufactured on: $year-" . substr($month, 0, 3) . "-$day
";
	      ?>

	If optional parameters are passed, the function will return the number of assigned values.

       Example #2

	      sscanf(3) - using optional parameters

	      <?php
	      // get author info and generate DocBook entry
	      $auth = "24	Lewis Carroll";
	      $n = sscanf($auth, "%d	%s %s", $id, $first, $last);
	      echo "<author id='$id'>
		  <firstname>$first</firstname>
		  <surname>$last</surname>
	      </author>
";
	      ?>

SEE ALSO
       fscanf(3), printf(3), sprintf(3).

PHP Documentation Group 														 SSCANF(3)