<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Split string into array by regular expression</title> </head> <body><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.eregi.html">eregi</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.spliti.html">spliti</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="ref.regex.html">POSIX Regex Functions</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div><hr /><div id="function.split" class="refentry"> <div class="refnamediv"> <h1 class="refname">split</h1> <p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">split</span> — <span class="dc-title">Split string into array by regular expression</span></p> </div> <div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.split-description"> <h3 class="title">Description</h3> <div class="methodsynopsis dc-description"> <span class="type">array</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>split</strong></span> ( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$pattern</code></span> , <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$string</code></span> [, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$limit</code><span class="initializer"> = -1</span></span> ] )</div> <p class="para rdfs-comment"> Splits a <em><code class="parameter">string</code></em> into array by regular expression. </p> <div class="warning"><strong class="warning">Warning</strong><p class="simpara">This function has been <em class="emphasis">DEPRECATED</em> as of PHP 5.3.0. Relying on this feature is highly discouraged.</p></div> </div> <div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.split-parameters"> <h3 class="title">Parameters</h3> <p class="para"> <dl> <dt> <span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em></span> <dd> <p class="para"> Case sensitive regular expression. </p> <p class="para"> 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 <span class="function"><strong>split()</strong></span> (or any other regex function, for that matter) is doing something weird, please read the file <var class="filename">regex.7</var>, included in the <var class="filename">regex/</var> subdirectory of the PHP distribution. It's in manpage format, so you'll want to do something along the lines of <strong class="command">man /usr/local/src/regex/regex.7</strong> in order to read it. </p> </dd> </dt> <dt> <span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">string</code></em></span> <dd> <p class="para"> The input string. </p> </dd> </dt> <dt> <span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">limit</code></em></span> <dd> <p class="para"> If <em><code class="parameter">limit</code></em> is set, the returned array will contain a maximum of <em><code class="parameter">limit</code></em> elements with the last element containing the whole rest of <em><code class="parameter">string</code></em>. </p> </dd> </dt> </dl> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.split-returnvalues"> <h3 class="title">Return Values</h3> <p class="para"> Returns an array of strings, each of which is a substring of <em><code class="parameter">string</code></em> formed by splitting it on boundaries formed by the case-sensitive regular expression <em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em>. </p> <p class="para"> If there are <span class="replaceable">n</span> occurrences of <em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em>, the returned array will contain <em><span class="replaceable">n</span>+1</em> items. For example, if there is no occurrence of <em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em>, an array with only one element will be returned. Of course, this is also true if <em><code class="parameter">string</code></em> is empty. If an error occurs, <span class="function"><strong>split()</strong></span> returns <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong>. </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.split-examples"> <h3 class="title">Examples</h3> <p class="para"> <div class="example" id="example-4812"> <p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>split()</strong></span> example</strong></p> <div class="example-contents"><p> To split off the first four fields from a line from <var class="filename">/etc/passwd</var>: </p></div> <div class="example-contents"> <div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000"> <span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">list(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$user</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$pass</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$uid</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$gid</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$extra</span><span style="color: #007700">) =<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">split</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">":"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$passwd_line</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">5</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span> </span> </code></div> </div> </div> </p> <p class="para"> <div class="example" id="example-4813"> <p><strong>Example #2 <span class="function"><strong>split()</strong></span> example</strong></p> <div class="example-contents"><p> To parse a date which may be delimited with slashes, dots, or hyphens: </p></div> <div class="example-contents"> <div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000"> <span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Delimiters may be slash, dot, or hyphen<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$date </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"04/30/1973"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />list(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$month</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$day</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$year</span><span style="color: #007700">) = </span><span style="color: #0000BB">split</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'[/.-]'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$date</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Month: </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$month</span><span style="color: #DD0000">; Day: </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$day</span><span style="color: #DD0000">; Year: </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$year</span><span style="color: #DD0000"><br />\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span> </span> </code></div> </div> </div> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.split-notes"> <h3 class="title">Notes</h3> <blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <p class="para">As of PHP 5.3.0, the regex extension is deprecated in favor of the <a href="book.pcre.html" class="link">PCRE extension</a>. Calling this function will issue an <strong><code>E_DEPRECATED</code></strong> notice. See <a href="reference.pcre.pattern.posix.html" class="link">the list of differences</a> for help on converting to PCRE.</p></p></blockquote> <div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong> <p class="para"> <span class="function"><strong>split()</strong></span> is deprecated as of PHP 5.3.0. <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-split.html" class="function">preg_split()</a></span> is the suggested alternative to this function. If you don't require the power of regular expressions, it is faster to use <span class="function"><a href="function.explode.html" class="function">explode()</a></span>, which doesn't incur the overhead of the regular expression engine. </p> </div> <div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong> <p class="para"> For users looking for a way to emulate Perl's <strong class="command">@chars = split('', $str)</strong> behaviour, please see the examples for <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-split.html" class="function">preg_split()</a></span> or <span class="function"><a href="function.str-split.html" class="function">str_split()</a></span>. </p> </div> </div> <div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.split-seealso"> <h3 class="title">See Also</h3> <p class="para"> <ul class="simplelist"> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-split.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">preg_split()</a> - Split string by a regular expression</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.spliti.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">spliti()</a> - Split string into array by regular expression case insensitive</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.str-split.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">str_split()</a> - Convert a string to an array</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.explode.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">explode()</a> - Split a string by string</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.implode.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">implode()</a> - Join array elements with a string</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.chunk-split.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">chunk_split()</a> - Split a string into smaller chunks</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.wordwrap.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">wordwrap()</a> - Wraps a string to a given number of characters</span></li> </ul> </p> </div> </div><hr /><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.eregi.html">eregi</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.spliti.html">spliti</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="ref.regex.html">POSIX Regex Functions</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div></body></html>