PHP explode() is a built-in function that is used to split a string into a string array on boundaries formed by the separator. In this tutorial, we are going to discuss splitting a string into an array with explode() function and PHP loop.
explode(separator, string, limit = PHP_INT_MAX);| separator | Required | The boundary string. The “separator” parameter cannot be an empty string. |
| string | Required | The input string |
| limit | Optional | If the limit is positive, the returned array will contain a maximum of limit elements with the last element containing the rest of the 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. |
| Returned Value | Returns an array of strings |
This function is binary-safe.
$cars = "Ferrari Benz BMW Volvo Toyota";
var_dump(explode(" ", $cars));Output
array (size=5)
0 => string 'Ferrari' (length=7)
1 => string 'Benz' (length=4)
2 => string 'BMW' (length=3)
3 => string 'Volvo' (length=5)
4 => string 'Toyota' (length=6)You can set the separator of any separator character.
$cars = "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota";
var_dump(explode(",", $cars));Output
array (size=5)
0 => string 'Ferrari' (length=7)
1 => string 'Benz' (length=4)
2 => string 'BMW' (length=3)
3 => string 'Volvo' (length=5)
4 => string 'Toyota' (length=6)PHP explode function with the limit parameter
$cars = "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota";
var_dump(explode(',', $cars, 0));Output
array (size=1)
0 => string 'Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota' (length=29)If you set the limit parameter to zero, the function will return the whole string as an array.
$cars = "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota";
var_dump(explode(',', $cars, 2));Output
array (size=2)
0 => string 'Ferrari' (length=7)
1 => string 'Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota' (length=21)If you set the limit with a positive number, the function will return the exploded string into an array with the entered number of elements. If you enter the number that is more than the separated elements, elements will be the maximum number of the separated elements
$cars = "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota";
var_dump(explode(',', $cars, -2));Output
array (size=3)
0 => string 'Ferrari' (length=7)
1 => string 'Benz' (length=4)
2 => string 'BMW' (length=3)If you enter a negative number for the limit, the last items of the returned array will be ignored.
preg_split() function
PHP preg_split() function splits string by a regular expression.
preg_split (pattern , subject , limit = -1 , flags = 0 );| pattern | Required | Determine a string as the pattern to search for. |
| subject | Required | The input string. |
| limit | Optional | If specified, then only substrings up to limit are returned with the rest of the string being placed in the last substring. A limit of -1 or 0 means “no limit”. |
| flags | Optional | flags can be any combination of the following flags (combined with the | bitwise operator):PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTYIf this flag is set, only non-empty pieces will be returned by preg_split(). PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTUREIf this flag is set, parenthesized expression in the delimiter pattern will be captured and returned as well. PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTUREIf this flag is set, for every occurring match the appendant string offset will also be returned. Note that this changes the return value in an array where every element is an array consisting of the matched string at offset 0 and its string offset into subject at offset 1. |
| Returned Value | Returns an array containing substrings of subject split along boundaries matched by pattern, or false on failure. |
$cars = preg_split("/[,]+/", "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota");
var_dump($cars);Output
array (size=5)
0 => string 'Ferrari' (length=7)
1 => string 'Benz' (length=4)
2 => string 'BMW' (length=3)
3 => string 'Volvo' (length=5)
4 => string 'Toyota' (length=6)PHP str_split() function
PHP str_split() function convert a string to an array
str_split ( string , length = 1 )| string | Required | The input string. |
| length | Optional | The maximum length of the chunk. |
| Returned Value | If the optional length parameter is specified, the returned array will be broken down into chunks with each being length in length, otherwise, each chunk will be one character in length. |
$cars = "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota";
var_dump(str_split($cars));Output
array (size=29)
0 => string 'F' (length=1)
1 => string 'e' (length=1)
2 => string 'r' (length=1)
3 => string 'r' (length=1)
4 => string 'a' (length=1)
5 => string 'r' (length=1)
6 => string 'i' (length=1)
7 => string ',' (length=1)
8 => string 'B' (length=1)
9 => string 'e' (length=1)
10 => string 'n' (length=1)
11 => string 'z' (length=1)
12 => string ',' (length=1)
13 => string 'B' (length=1)
14 => string 'M' (length=1)
15 => string 'W' (length=1)
16 => string ',' (length=1)
17 => string 'V' (length=1)
18 => string 'o' (length=1)
19 => string 'l' (length=1)
20 => string 'v' (length=1)
21 => string 'o' (length=1)
22 => string ',' (length=1)
23 => string 'T' (length=1)
24 => string 'o' (length=1)
25 => string 'y' (length=1)
26 => string 'o' (length=1)
27 => string 't' (length=1)
28 => string 'a' (length=1)In this example the length is not defined then the function separated the string character by character.
$cars = "Ferrari,Benz,BMW,Volvo,Toyota";
var_dump(str_split($cars, 4));Output
array (size=8)
0 => string 'Ferr' (length=4)
1 => string 'ari,' (length=4)
2 => string 'Benz' (length=4)
3 => string ',BMW' (length=4)
4 => string ',Vol' (length=4)
5 => string 'vo,T' (length=4)
6 => string 'oyot' (length=4)
7 => string 'a' (length=1)