Php/docs/function.explode

• PHP Manual
• String Functions
• Split a string by a string

explode

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

explode — Split a string by a string

Description

explode ( string $separator , string $string [, int $limit = PHP_INT_MAX ] ) : array

Returns an array of strings, each of which is a substring of string formed by splitting it on boundaries formed by the string separator.

Parameters

separator

The boundary string.

string

The input string.

limit

If limit is set and positive, the returned array will contain a maximum of limit elements with the last element containing the rest of string.

If the limit parameter is negative, all components except the last -limit are returned.

If the limit parameter is zero, then this is treated as 1.

Note:

Although implode() can, for historical reasons, accept its parameters in either order, explode() cannot. You must ensure that the separator argument comes before the string argument.

Return Values

Returns an array of strings created by splitting the string parameter on boundaries formed by the separator.

If separator is an empty string (""), explode() will return FALSE. If separator contains a value that is not contained in string and a negative limit is used, then an empty array will be returned, otherwise an array containing string will be returned.

Examples

Example #1 explode() examples

<?php// Example 1$pizza  = "piece1 piece2 piece3 piece4 piece5 piece6";$pieces = explode(" ", $pizza);echo $pieces[0]; // piece1echo $pieces[1]; // piece2// Example 2$data = "foo:*:1023:1000::/home/foo:/bin/sh";list($user, $pass, $uid, $gid, $gecos, $home, $shell) = explode(":", $data);echo $user; // fooecho $pass; // *?>

Example #2 explode() return examples

<?php/*    A string that doesn't contain the delimiter will simply   return a one-length array of the original string.*/$input1 = "hello";$input2 = "hello,there";$input3 = ',';var_dump( explode( ',', $input1 ) );var_dump( explode( ',', $input2 ) );var_dump( explode( ',', $input3 ) );?>

The above example will output:

array(1)
(
    [0] => string(5) "hello"
)
array(2)
(
    [0] => string(5) "hello"
    [1] => string(5) "there"
)
array(2)
(
    [0] => string(0) ""
    [1] => string(0) ""
)

Example #3 limit parameter examples

<?php$str = 'one|two|three|four';// positive limitprint_r(explode('|', $str, 2));// negative limit (since PHP 5.1)print_r(explode('|', $str, -1));?>

The above example will output:

Array
(
    [0] => one
    [1] => two|three|four
)
Array
(
    [0] => one
    [1] => two
    [2] => three
)

Notes

Note:

This function is

binary-safe.

See Also

• preg_split() - Split string by a regular expression
• str_split() - Convert a string to an array
• mb_split() - Split multibyte string using regular expression
• str_word_count() - Return information about words used in a string
• strtok() - Tokenize string
• implode() - Join array elements with a string