explode

Synopsis

Returns

Array containing zero or more substrings of the string argument; FALSE on error or if the boundary argument is empty

Description

explode() is used to break a string into an array. The array is created by parsing the string from left to right. The first array element contains every character from the first character of the string to the first occurrence of the character(s) contained in the boundary argument. Subsequent array elements contain every character after the previous occurrence of the boundary character(s) to the next occurrence of the boundary character(s).

If the optional limit argument is used, parsing stops after the array contains limit elements. The last element contains the unparsed remainder of the string.

Version

PHP 3+, PHP 4+ (optional argument added in PHP 4.0.1)

See also

Example

<?php
// Basic use of explode()
$string = "1||2||3";
var_dump(explode('||', $string));

// Show how explode() handles empty strings between boundary strings
$string = ";;";
var_dump(explode(';', $string));

// Try parsing CSV data
// Note that boundary strings inside quotes are *not* ignored
$string = '1,2,"a, b", 4';
var_dump(explode(',', $string));

// Use the optional limit argument
$string = '1,2,3,4,5,6';
var_dump(explode(',', $string, 3));
?>

Output:
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(1) "1"
  [1]=>
  string(1) "2"
  [2]=>
  string(1) "3"
}
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(0) ""
  [1]=>
  string(0) ""
  [2]=>
  string(0) ""
}
array(5) {
  [0]=>
  string(1) "1"
  [1]=>
  string(1) "2"
  [2]=>
  string(2) ""a"
  [3]=>
  string(3) " b""
  [4]=>
  string(2) " 4"
}
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(1) "1"
  [1]=>
  string(1) "2"
  [2]=>
  string(7) "3,4,5,6"
}