SPLIT(3) 1 SPLIT(3)
split - Split string into array by regular expression
SYNOPSIS
array split (string $pattern, string $string, [int $limit = -1])
DESCRIPTION
Splits a $string into array by regular expression.
Warning
This function has been DEPRECATED as of PHP 5.3.0. Relying on this feature is highly discouraged.
PARAMETERS
o $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(3) (or any other regex function, for that matter) is doing some-
thing 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.
o $string
- The input string.
o $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 $string is empty. If an error occurs, split(3) returns FALSE.
EXAMPLES
Example #1
split(3) example
To split off the first four fields from a line from /etc/passwd:
<?php
list($user, $pass, $uid, $gid, $extra) =
split(":", $passwd_line, 5);
?>
Example #2
split(3) 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 />
";
?>
NOTES
Note
As of PHP 5.3.0, the regex extension is deprecated in favor of the PCRE extension. Calling this function will issue an E_DEPRECATED
notice. See the list of differences for help on converting to PCRE.
Tip
split(3) is deprecated as of PHP 5.3.0. preg_split(3) is the suggested alternative to this function. If you don't require the power
of regular expressions, it is faster to use explode(3), 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(3) or
str_split(3).
SEE ALSO
preg_split(3), spliti(3), str_split(3), explode(3), implode(3), chunk_split(3), wordwrap(3).
PHP Documentation Group SPLIT(3)