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<title>Split string into array by regular expression</title>
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<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 id="function.split-refsynopsisdiv">
<div class="warning"><strong class="warning">Warning</strong>
<p class="para">
This function was <em class="emphasis">DEPRECATED</em> in PHP 5.3.0, and
<em class="emphasis">REMOVED</em> in PHP 7.0.0.
</p>
<p class="para">
Alternatives to this function include:
</p>
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"><span class="function"><a href="function.preg-split.html" class="function">preg_split()</a></span></li>
<li class="member"><span class="function"><a href="function.explode.html" class="function">explode()</a></span></li>
<li class="member"><span class="function"><a href="function.str-split.html" class="function">str_split()</a></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
</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 <code class="parameter">string</code> into array by regular expression.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.split-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<code class="parameter">pattern</code></dt>
<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>
<code class="parameter">string</code></dt>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The input string.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<code class="parameter">limit</code></dt>
<dd>
<p class="para">
If <code class="parameter">limit</code> is set, the returned array will
contain a maximum of <code class="parameter">limit</code> elements with the
last element containing the whole rest of
<code class="parameter">string</code>.
</p>
</dd>
</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
<code class="parameter">string</code> formed by splitting it on boundaries formed
by the case-sensitive regular expression <code class="parameter">pattern</code>.
</p>
<p class="para">
If there are <span class="replaceable">n</span> occurrences of
<code class="parameter">pattern</code>, the returned array will contain
<em><span class="replaceable">n</span>+1</em> items. For example, if
there is no occurrence of <code class="parameter">pattern</code>, an array with
only one element will be returned. Of course, this is also true if
<code class="parameter">string</code> 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-6014">
<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">$passwd_line</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">5</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-6015">
<p><strong>Example #2 <span class="function"><strong>split()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
To parse a date which may be delimited with slashes, dots, or hyphens:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Delimiters may be slash, dot, or hyphen<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$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>
<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 a 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>
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