explode

(PHP 3 <= 3.0.18, PHP 4 >= 4.0.0)

explode -- Split a string by string

Description

array explode (string separator, string string [, int limit])

Returns an array of strings, each of which is a substring of string formed by splitting it on boundaries formed by the string separator. If limit is set, the returned array will contain a maximum of limit elements with the last element containing the rest of string.

If separator is an empty string (""), explode() will return FALSE. If separator contains a value that is not contained in string, then explode() will return an array containing string.

Note: The limit parameter was added in PHP 4.0.1

Example 1. explode() examples

$pizza = "piece1 piece2 piece3 piece4 piece5 piece6";
$pieces = explode(" ", $pizza);

$data = "foo:*:1023:1000::/home/foo:/bin/sh";
list($user,$pass,$uid,$gid,$gecos,$home,$shell) = explode(":",$data);

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.

See also preg_split(), spliti(), split(), and implode().