spliti

eregi

Last updated: Fri, 26 Sep 2008

split

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

split — Split string into array by regular expression

Description

array split ( string $pattern , string $string [, int $limit ] )

Splits a string into array by regular expression.

Parameters

pattern

Case sensitive regular expression.

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 split() (or any other regex function, for that matter) is doing something weird, please read the file regex.7, included in the regex/ subdirectory of the PHP distribution. It's in manpage format, so you'll want to do something along the lines of man /usr/local/src/regex/regex.7 in order to read it.

string

The input string.

limit

If limit is set, the returned array will contain a maximum of limit elements with the last element containing the whole rest of string .

Return Values

Returns an array of strings, each of which is a substring of string formed by splitting it on boundaries formed by the case-sensitive regular expression pattern .

If there are n occurrences of pattern , the returned array will contain n+1 items. For example, if there is no occurrence of pattern , an array with only one element will be returned. Of course, this is also true if string is empty. If an error occurs, split() returns FALSE.

Examples

Example #1 split() example

To split off the first four fields from a line from /etc/passwd:


<?php
list($user, $pass, $uid, $gid, $extra) =
    split(":", $passwd_line, 5);
?>

Example #2 split() example

To parse a date which may be delimited with slashes, dots, or hyphens:


<?php
// Delimiters may be slash, dot, or hyphen
$date = "04/30/1973";
list($month, $day, $year) = split('[/.-]', $date);
echo "Month: $month; Day: $day; Year: $year<br />\n";
?>

Notes

Tip

preg_split(), which uses a Perl-compatible regular expression syntax, is often a faster alternative to split(). If you don't require the power of regular expressions, it is faster to use explode(), which doesn't incur the overhead of the regular expression engine.

Tip

For users looking for a way to emulate Perl's @chars = split('', $str) behaviour, please see the examples for preg_split() or str_split().


This function basically is to split the string from right with limit 

<?php



function split_right($pattern,$input,$len=0)

    {

if($len==0)

    return split($pattern,$input);



            $tempInput = split($pattern,$input);

            $tempInput = array_reverse($tempInput);

            $tempArray = array();

            $ArrayIndex=0;

            $indexCount=0;

            foreach($tempInput as $values)

            {

                if($indexCount<$len)

                {

                    $tempArray[$ArrayIndex]=$values;

                    if($indexCount<$len-1)

                        $ArrayIndex++;

                }

                else

                {

                        $tempArray[$ArrayIndex]=$values.$pattern.$tempArray[$ArrayIndex];

                    

                }

                

                $indexCount++;



            }

            return array_reverse($tempArray);

    }



//For Example:

$string = "Hello World Split";

print_r(split(" ",$string,2));

print_r(split_right(" ",$string,2));



/*OutPut

Array

(

    [0] => Hello

    [1] => World Split

)



Array

(

    [0] => Hello World

    [1] => Split

)

*/



?>

anthonyhoivik at gmail dot com
15-Aug-2008 05:45


Convert a full name ( in one text input ) to a first, middle, last.



$fullname = $_POST['fullname'];

  list($first, $middle, $last) = split(' ', $fullname);

  if ( !$last ) {

    $last = $middle;

    unset($middle);

  }

pascalaschwandenNOSPAM at gmail dot com
13-Jul-2008 09:12


The following code will mimick the explode functionality: explode( " ", $s );  The difference, of course, is that the split method takes a regular expression instead of a string.



$s = "Split this sentence by spaces";

$words = split("[ ]+", $s);

print_r($words);



Output:

Array

(

    [0] => Split

    [1] => this

    [2] => sentence

    [3] => by

    [4] => spaces

)

http://www.codesplunk.com/nr/questions/php12.html

Chris Tyler
10-Apr-2008 12:25


Thank you Dave for your code below.  Here is one change I made to avoid a redundant quote at the end of some lines (at least when I used excel:  



Added another --length;  into the if statement below:



                // Is the last thing a quote?

                if ($trim_quote){

                    // Well then get rid of it

                    --$length;

        // ADD TO FIX extra quote

    --$length;

                }

lewis [ at t] hcoms [d dot t] co [d dot t] uk
26-Mar-2008 12:32


Those of you trying to use split for CSV, it won't always work as expected. Instead, try using a simple stack method:



<?php



    /**

     * Create a 2D array from a CSV string

     *

     * @param mixed $data 2D array

     * @param string $delimiter Field delimiter

     * @param string $enclosure Field enclosure

     * @param string $newline Line seperator

     * @return

     */

    function parse($data, $delimiter = ',', $enclosure = '"', $newline = "\n"){

        $pos = $last_pos = -1;

        $end = strlen($data);

        $row = 0;

        $quote_open = false;

        $trim_quote = false;



        $return = array();



        // Create a continuous loop

        for ($i = -1;; ++$i){

            ++$pos;

            // Get the positions

            $comma_pos = strpos($data, $delimiter, $pos);

            $quote_pos = strpos($data, $enclosure, $pos);

            $newline_pos = strpos($data, $newline, $pos);



            // Which one comes first?

            $pos = min(($comma_pos === false) ? $end : $comma_pos, ($quote_pos === false) ? $end : $quote_pos, ($newline_pos === false) ? $end : $newline_pos);



            // Cache it

            $char = (isset($data[$pos])) ? $data[$pos] : null;

            $done = ($pos == $end);



            // It it a special character?

            if ($done || $char == $delimiter || $char == $newline){



                // Ignore it as we're still in a quote

                if ($quote_open && !$done){

                    continue;

                }



                $length = $pos - ++$last_pos;



                // Is the last thing a quote?

                if ($trim_quote){

                    // Well then get rid of it

                    --$length;

                }



                // Get all the contents of this column

                $return[$row][] = ($length > 0) ? str_replace($enclosure . $enclosure, $enclosure, substr($data, $last_pos, $length)) : '';



                // And we're done

                if ($done){

                    break;

                }



                // Save the last position

                $last_pos = $pos;



                // Next row?

                if ($char == $newline){

                    ++$row;

                }



                $trim_quote = false;

            }

            // Our quote?

            else if ($char == $enclosure){



                // Toggle it

                if ($quote_open == false){

                    // It's an opening quote

                    $quote_open = true;

                    $trim_quote = false;



                    // Trim this opening quote?

                    if ($last_pos + 1 == $pos){

                        ++$last_pos;

                    }



                }

                else {

                    // It's a closing quote

                    $quote_open = false;



                    // Trim the last quote?

                    $trim_quote = true;

                }



            }



        }



        return $return;

    }



?>



This *should* work for any valid CSV string, regardless of what it contains inside its quotes (using RFC 4180). It should also be faster than most of the others I've seen. It's very simple in concept, and thoroughly commented.

Dave Walter
01-Mar-2008 12:39


In response to  the getCSVValues() function posted by justin at cam dot org, my testing indicates that it has a problem with a CSV string like this:



1,2,"3,""4,5"",6",7



This parses as:



array(6) {

  [0]=>

  string(1) "1"

  [1]=>

  string(1) "2"

  [2]=>

  string(4) "3,"4"

  [3]=>

  string(1) "5"

  [4]=>

  string(0) ""

  [5]=>

  string(1) "7"

}



instead of:



array(4) {

  [0]=>

  string(1) "1"

  [1]=>

  string(1) "2"

  [2]=>

  string(9) "3,"4,5",6"

  [3]=>

  string(1) "7"

}



To fix this, I changed the second substr_count to look for an odd number of quotes, as opposed to any quotes at all:



<?php

function getCSVValues($string, $separator=",")

{

    $elements = explode($separator, $string);

    for ($i = 0; $i < count($elements); $i++) {

        $nquotes = substr_count($elements[$i], '"');

        if ($nquotes %2 == 1) {

            for ($j = $i+1; $j < count($elements); $j++) {

                if (substr_count($elements[$j], '"') %2 == 1) { // Look for an odd-number of quotes

                    // Put the quoted string's pieces back together again

                    array_splice($elements, $i, $j-$i+1,

                        implode($separator, array_slice($elements, $i, $j-$i+1)));

                    break;

                }

            }

        }

        if ($nquotes > 0) {

            // Remove first and last quotes, then merge pairs of quotes

            $qstr =& $elements[$i];

            $qstr = substr_replace($qstr, '', strpos($qstr, '"'), 1);

            $qstr = substr_replace($qstr, '', strrpos($qstr, '"'), 1);

            $qstr = str_replace('""', '"', $qstr);

        }

    }

    return $elements;

}

?>

Nate Sweet
31-May-2007 10:39


This function takes a string like this...



this=cool that="super cool" thing='ridiculous cool'



And gives you an associative array of names and values.



function parseNameValues ($text) {

    $values = array();

    if (preg_match_all('/([^=\s]+)=("(?P<value1>[^"]+)"|' . '\'(?P<value2>[^\']+)\'|(?P<value3>.+?)\b)/', $text, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER))

        foreach ($matches as $match)

            $values[trim($match[1])] = trim(@$match['value1'] . @$match['value2'] . @$match['value3']);

    return $values;

}



(regex broken into two strings so it won't be too long for this webpage)

Mike
19-May-2007 07:40


// Split a string into words on boundaries of one or more spaces, tabs or new-lines

$s = "Please cut   \t me \n in pieces";

$words = split("[\n\r\t ]+", $s);

print_r($words);



// Output:

Array

(

    [0] => Please

    [1] => cut

    [2] => me

    [3] => in

    [4] => pieces

)

Jort
14-Mar-2007 09:53


If you are looking for EITHER open square brackets OR close square brackets, then '[[]]' won't work (reasonably expected), but neither will '[\[\]]', nor with any number of escapes. HOWEVER, if your pattern is '[][]' it will work.

justin at cam dot org
16-Feb-2007 07:21


The previous solution assumes that a quoted string always starts a new element (true in real CSV files, but not in my application). The following routine does not make any such assumptions. It also deals with pairs of quotes and does not use any regular expressions.



<?php

function getCSVValues($string, $separator=",")

{

    $elements = explode($separator, $string);

    for ($i = 0; $i < count($elements); $i++) {

        $nquotes = substr_count($elements[$i], '"');

        if ($nquotes %2 == 1) {

            for ($j = $i+1; $j < count($elements); $j++) {

                if (substr_count($elements[$j], '"') > 0) {

                    // Put the quoted string's pieces back together again

                    array_splice($elements, $i, $j-$i+1,

                        implode($separator, array_slice($elements, $i, $j-$i+1)));

                    break;

                }

            }

        }

        if ($nquotes > 0) {

            // Remove first and last quotes, then merge pairs of quotes

            $qstr =& $elements[$i];

            $qstr = substr_replace($qstr, '', strpos($qstr, '"'), 1);

            $qstr = substr_replace($qstr, '', strrpos($qstr, '"'), 1);

            $qstr = str_replace('""', '"', $qstr);

        }

    }

    return $elements;

}

?>

Theodule
24-Jan-2007 05:41


A little modification from dan jones.

_New_: I had a parameter to specify separator (default ",").

_Fix _: double-quotes who appear in a spreadsheet exported to CSV, they get escaped by doubling them. So I remplace them by ' caracter

<?php

function getCSVValues($string,$separator=",") 

{

    $string = str_replace('""', "'", $string);

    // split the string at double quotes "

    $bits = explode('"',$string);

    $elements = array();

    for ( $i=0; $i < count($bits) ; $i++ ) {

        /*

        odd numbered elements would have been

        enclosed by double quotes

        even numbered elements would not have been

        */

        if (($i%2) == 1) {

            /* if the element number is odd add the

            whole string  to the output array */

            $elements[] = $bits[$i];

        } else 

        {

            /* otherwise split the unquoted stuff at commas

            and add the elements to the array */

            $rest = $bits[$i];

            $rest = preg_replace("/^".$separator."/","",$rest);

            $rest = preg_replace("/".$separator."$/","",$rest);

            $elements = array_merge($elements,explode($separator,$rest));

        }

    }

    return $elements;

}

?>

dan dot jones at lunarfish dot co dot uk
17-Aug-2006 02:24


Here's a function to split a string into csv values where they are optionally enclosed by " to allow values with commas in.



I think it works. Let me know if I'm wrong.



Cheers. Dan



function getCSVValues($string) {

   // split the string at double quotes "

   $bits = split('"',$string);

   $elements = array();

   for ($i=0;$i<count($bits);$i++) {

      /*

          odd numbered elements would have been 

          enclosed by double quotes 

          even numbered elements would not have been

      */

      if (($i%2) == 1) {

         /* if the element number is odd add the 

             whole string  to the output array */

         $elements[] = $bits[$i];

      } else {

         /* otherwise split the unquoted stuff at commas 

             and add the elements to the array */

         $rest = $bits[$i];

         $rest = preg_replace("/^,/","",$rest);

         $rest = preg_replace("/,$/","",$rest);

         $elements = array_merge($elements,split(',',$rest));

      }

   }

   return $elements;

}

destes at ix dot netcom dot com
14-Feb-2006 09:15


Some corrections to robin-at-teddyb's CSV splitting function.  Recall that the point of this is to properly implement a split() function that handles data exported to CSV, where data containing commas gets quote-delimited.





* Problem 1: As jh-at-junetz pointed out, the +1 in robin's nonquoted splitting command mistakenly adds an extra element to the resulting array.


* Problem 2: If consecutive fields are quote-delimited, the remaining "separator" between them only contains one delimiter and no actual fields - so an extra element gets added to the parsed array.


* Problem 3: When double-quotes appear in a spreadsheet exported to CSV, they get escaped by doubling them, i.e. a data field reading "this is a test of a "special" case" gets written to CSV as, "this is a test of a ""special"" case".  These quotes are also interpreted as top-level delimiters and (mistakenly) add extra array elements to the output.  





I have hacked a conversion of "" to a single quote ( ' ), but a truly clever preg_split for the top-level splitter (instead of the explode) might preserve the original doubled "s without bugging up the top-level parsing.  i.e., a smarter man than I could solve the problem rather than avoiding it by replacing the bad data.





(current) Solution:





<?php





function quotesplit( $splitter=',', $s, $restore_quotes=0 ) {


    // hack because i'm a bad programmer - replace doubled "s with a '


    $s = str_replace('""', "'", $s);


    


    //First step is to split it up into the bits that are surrounded by quotes


    //and the bits that aren't. Adding the delimiter to the ends simplifies


    //the logic further down


    $getstrings = explode('"', $splitter.$s.$splitter);





    //$instring toggles so we know if we are in a quoted string or not


    $delimlen = strlen($splitter);


    $instring = 0;





    while (list($arg, $val) = each($getstrings)) {


        if ($instring==1) {


            if( $restore_quotes ) {


                //Add the whole string, untouched to the previous value in the array


                $result[count($result)-1] = $result[count($result)-1].'"'.$val.'"';


            } else {


                //Add the whole string, untouched to the array


                $result[] = $val;


            }


            $instring = 0;


        } else {


            // check that we have data between multiple $splitter delimiters


                        if ((strlen($val)-$delimlen) >= 1) {


            


                //Break up the string according to the delimiter character


                //Each string has extraneous delimiters around it (inc the ones we added


                //above), so they need to be stripped off


                $temparray = split($splitter, substr($val, $delimlen, strlen($val)-$delimlen-$delimlen ) );





                while(list($iarg, $ival) = each($temparray)) {


                    $result[] = trim($ival);


                }


            }


            // else, the next element needing parsing is a quoted string and the comma


            // here is just a single separator and contains no data, so skip it





            $instring = 1;


        }


    }





    return $result;


}





?>

RE: gcerretini at technica dot net /UTF8
08-Feb-2006 01:26


Original problem:

=================



I've try using split function.



<?php

$ferro="2&#65533;12";

$valore=split("[&#65533;]",$ferro);

echo $ferro."<br>";

echo "p1-".$valore[0]."<br>";

echo "p2-".$valore[1]."<br>";

echo "p3-".$valore[2]."<br>";

$ferro="2d12";

$valore=split("[d]",$ferro);

echo $ferro."<br>";

echo "p1-".$valore[0]."<br>";

echo "p2-".$valore[1]."<br>";

echo "p3-".$valore[2]."<br>";

?>



This return:

============



2&#65533;12

p1-2

p2-

p3-12

2d12

p1-2

p2-12

p3-



I use charset UTF-8. When I use char &#65533; the split function ad an empty string between "2" and "12"... Why?



Explanation:

============



UTF-8 charset codes some characters (like the "&#65533;" character) into two bytes. In fact the regular expresion "[&#65533;]" contains 4 bytes (4 non-unicode characters). To demonstrate the real situation I wrote following example:



$ferro="2de12";

$valore=split("[de]",$ferro);

echo $ferro."<br>";

echo "p1-".$valore[0]."<br>";

echo "p2-".$valore[1]."<br>";

echo "p3-".$valore[2]."<br>";



This returns:

=============



2d12

p1-2

p2-

p3-12

04-Dec-2005 02:57


Be advised



$arr = split("x", "x" );

print_r($arr);



will output:



Array

(

    [0] => 

    [1] => 

)



That is it will catch 2 empty strings on each side of the delimiter.

franz at fholzinger dot com
04-Nov-2005 01:34


The example from ramkumar rajendran did not work. 

$line = split("/\n", $input_several_lines_long);

I do not know why this does not work for me.



The following has worked for me to get a maximum of 2 array parts separated by the first new line (independant if saved under UNIX or WINDOWS):

$line = preg_split('/[\n\r]+/',$input_several_lines_long,2);

Also empty lines are not considered here.

passtschu AT freenet DOT de
24-Sep-2005 09:09


divide a string with a template. the "template dividers" are the keys for the output array.



<?PHP

function string2array ($string, $template){

  #search defined dividers

  preg_match_all ("|%(.+)%|U", $template, $template_matches);

  #replace dividers with "real dividers"

  $template = preg_replace ("|%(.+)%|U", "(.+)", $template);

  #search matches

  preg_match ("|" . $template . "|", $string, $string_matches);

  #[template_match] => $string_match

  foreach ($template_matches[1] as $key => $value){

     $output[$value] = $string_matches[($key + 1)];

  }

  return $output;

}



$string1 = 'www.something.com 66.196.91.121 - - [01/Sep/2005:04:20:39 +0200] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.0" 200 49 "-"';

$string2= '%Domain% %IP% - %User% \[%Date%:%Time% %TimeZone%\] "%Method% %Request% %Protocol%" %ServerCode% %Bytes% "%Referer%"';



print_r (string2array ($string1, $string2));



/*

Array



(

  [ServerAddress] => www.something.com

  [IP] => 66.196.91.121

  [User] => -

  [Date] => 01/Sep/2005

  [Time] => 04:20:39

  [TimeZone] => +0200

  [Method] => GET

  [Request] => /robots.txt

  [Protocol] => HTTP/1.0

  [ServerCode] => 200

  [Bytes] => 49

  [Referer] => -

)

*/

?>

robin at teddyb dot org
30-Jun-2005 06:01


Actually, this version is better than the last I submitted.  The goal here is to be able to engage in *multiple* delimeter removal passes; for all but the last pass, set the third value to "1", and everything should go well.



    function quotesplit( $splitter=',', $s, $restore_quotes=0 )

    {

        //First step is to split it up into the bits that are surrounded by quotes

        //and the bits that aren't. Adding the delimiter to the ends simplifies

        //the logic further down



        $getstrings = explode('"', $splitter.$s.$splitter);



        //$instring toggles so we know if we are in a quoted string or not

        $delimlen = strlen($splitter);

        $instring = 0;



        while (list($arg, $val) = each($getstrings))

        {

            if ($instring==1)

            {

                if( $restore_quotes )

                {

                    //Add the whole string, untouched to the previous value in the array

                    $result[count($result)-1] = $result[count($result)-1].'"'.$val.'"';

                } else {

                    //Add the whole string, untouched to the array

                    $result[] = $val;

                }

                $instring = 0;

            }

            else

            {

                //Break up the string according to the delimiter character

                //Each string has extraneous delimiters around it (inc the ones we added

                //above), so they need to be stripped off

                $temparray = split($splitter, substr($val, $delimlen, strlen($val)-$delimlen-$delimlen+1 ) );



                while(list($iarg, $ival) = each($temparray))

                {

                    $result[] = trim($ival);

                }

                $instring = 1;

            }

        }



        return $result;

    }

robin at teddyb dot org
30-Jun-2005 05:50


wchris's quotesplit assumes that anything that is quoted must also be a complete delimiter-seperated entry by itself.  This version does not.  It also uses split's argument order.



    function quotesplit( $splitter=',', $s )

    {

        //First step is to split it up into the bits that are surrounded by quotes

        //and the bits that aren't. Adding the delimiter to the ends simplifies

        //the logic further down



        $getstrings = explode('"', $splitter.$s.$splitter);



        //$instring toggles so we know if we are in a quoted string or not

        $delimlen = strlen($splitter);

        $instring = 0;



        while (list($arg, $val) = each($getstrings))

        {

            if ($instring==1)

            {

                //Add the whole string, untouched to the previous value in the array

                $result[count($result)-1] = $result[count($result)-1].$val;

                $instring = 0;

            }

            else

            {

                //Break up the string according to the delimiter character

                //Each string has extraneous delimiters around it (inc the ones we added

                //above), so they need to be stripped off

                $temparray = split($splitter, substr($val, $delimlen, strlen($val)-$delimlen-$delimlen+1 ) );



                while(list($iarg, $ival) = each($temparray))

                {

                    $result[] = trim($ival);

                }

                $instring = 1;

            }

        }



        return $result;

    }

wchris
18-Feb-2005 12:53


moritz's quotesplit didn't work for me. It seemed to split on a comma even though it was between a pair of quotes. However, this did work:



function quotesplit($s, $splitter=',')

{

//First step is to split it up into the bits that are surrounded by quotes and the bits that aren't. Adding the delimiter to the ends simplifies the logic further down



    $getstrings = split('\"', $splitter.$s.$splitter);



//$instring toggles so we know if we are in a quoted string or not

    $delimlen = strlen($splitter);

    $instring = 0;



    while (list($arg, $val) = each($getstrings))

    {

        if ($instring==1)

        {

//Add the whole string, untouched to the result array.

            $result[] = $val;

            $instring = 0;

        }

        else

        {

//Break up the string according to the delimiter character

//Each string has extraneous delimiters around it (inc the ones we added above), so they need to be stripped off

            $temparray = split($splitter, substr($val, $delimlen, strlen($val)-$delimlen-$delimlen ) );



            while(list($iarg, $ival) = each($temparray))

            {

                $result[] = trim($ival);

            }

            $instring = 1;

        }

    }

    return $result;

}

ramkumar rajendran
17-Jan-2005 07:09


A correction to a earlier note

If you want to use split to check on line feeds (\n), the following won't work:



$line = split("\n", $input_several_lines_long);



You really have to do this instead, notice the second slash:

$line = split("/\n", $input_several_lines_long);



Took me a little while to figure to do

claes at dot2me.com
04-Nov-2004 01:10


Though this is obvious, the manual is a bit incorrect when claiming that the return will always be 1+number of time the split pattern occures.  If the split pattern is the first part of the string, the return will still be 1.  E.g.



$a = split("zz," "zzxsj.com");

count($a);



=> 1.



The return of this can not in anyway be seperated from the return where the split pattern is not found.

moritz
09-Apr-2004 08:54


Often you want to split CSV-Like data, so this is the function for this :)



It splits data formatted like:



1,2,3

-> [1,2,3]



1 , 3, 4

-> [1,3,4]



one; two;three

-> ['one','two','three']



"this is a string", "this is a string with , and ;", 'this is a string with quotes like " these', "this is a string with escaped quotes \" and \'.", 3

-> ['this is a string','this is a string with , and ;','this is a string with quotes like " these','this is a string with escaped quotes " and '.',3]



function quotesplit($s)

{

    $r = Array();

    $p = 0;

    $l = strlen($s);

    while ($p < $l) {

        while (($p < $l) && (strpos(" \r\t\n",$s[$p]) !== false)) $p++;

        if ($s[$p] == '"') {

            $p++;

            $q = $p;

            while (($p < $l) && ($s[$p] != '"')) {

                if ($s[$p] == '\\') { $p+=2; continue; }

                $p++;

            }

            $r[] = stripslashes(substr($s, $q, $p-$q));

            $p++;

            while (($p < $l) && (strpos(" \r\t\n",$s[$p]) !== false)) $p++;

            $p++;

        } else if ($s[$p] == "'") {

            $p++;

            $q = $p;

            while (($p < $l) && ($s[$p] != "'")) {

                if ($s[$p] == '\\') { $p+=2; continue; }

                $p++;

            }

            $r[] = stripslashes(substr($s, $q, $p-$q));

            $p++;

            while (($p < $l) && (strpos(" \r\t\n",$s[$p]) !== false)) $p++;

            $p++;

        } else {

            $q = $p;

            while (($p < $l) && (strpos(",;",$s[$p]) === false)) {

                $p++;

            }

            $r[] = stripslashes(trim(substr($s, $q, $p-$q)));

            while (($p < $l) && (strpos(" \r\t\n",$s[$p]) !== false)) $p++;

            $p++;

        }

    }

    return $r;

}

alphibia at alphibia dot com
31-Mar-2004 04:19


I'd like to correct myself, I found that after testing my last solution it will create 5 lines no matter what... So I added this to make sure that it only displays 5 if there are five newlines. :-)



<?php 

    $MaxNewLines = 5; 



    $BRCount = substr_count($Message, '<br />');  

    if ($BRCount<$MaxNewLines) 

    $MaxNewLines=$BRCount; 

    else if($BRCount == 0) 

    $MaxNewLines=1; 



    $Message = str_replace(chr(13), "<br />", $Message); 

    $MessageArray = split("<br />", $Message, $MaxNewLines); 

    $Message = ""; $u=0; 

    do    { 

    $Message.=$MessageArray[$u].'<br />'; 

    $u++; 

    } while($u<($MaxNewLines-1)); 

    $Message.=str_replace("<br />"," ",$MessageArray[$u]); 

    ?> 



-Tim

http://www.alphibia.com

nomail at please dot now
21-Nov-2003 06:33


If you want to use split to check on line feeds (\n), the following won't work:



$line = split("\n", $input_several_lines_long);



You really have to do this instead, notice the second slash:

$line = split("\\n", $input_several_lines_long);



Took me a little while to figure out.

krahn at niehs dot nih dot gov
24-Oct-2003 09:14


> strange things happen with split

> this didn't work

> $vontag $vonmonat were empty strings

...

> list ($vontag , $vonmonat) = split ('.' , $fromdate); // << bad



Split is acting exactly as it should; it splits on regular expressions.

A period is a regular expression pattern for a single character.

So, an actual period must be escaped with a backslash:  '\.'

A period within brackets is not an any-character pattern, because it does

not make sense in that context.



Beware that regular expressions can be confusing becuase there

are a few different varieties of patterns.

dalu at uni dot de
08-Oct-2003 09:26


php4.3.0



strange things happen with split



this didn't work

$vontag $vonmonat were empty strings



<?php

function ckdate($fromdate="01.01", $todate="31.12")

{

    $nowyear = date("Y");

    list ($vontag , $vonmonat) = split ('.' , $fromdate); // << bad

    $vondatum = "$nowyear-$vonmonat-$vontag";

    list ($bistag , $bismonat) = split ('.' , $todate); // << bad

    $bisdatum = "$nowyear-$bismonat-$bistag";

    $von = strtotime($vondatum);

    $bis = strtotime($bisdatum);

    $now = time();

    if (($now <= $bis) and ($now >= $von))

    {

        return TRUE;

    }

    else

    {

        return FALSE;

    }

}

?>



however this one worked perfectly



<?php

function ckdate($fromdate="01.01", $todate="31.12")

{

    $nowyear = date("Y");

    list ($vontag , $vonmonat) = split ('[.]' , $fromdate); // << good

    $vondatum = "$nowyear-$vonmonat-$vontag";

    list ($bistag , $bismonat) = split ('[.]' , $todate); // << good

    $bisdatum = "$nowyear-$bismonat-$bistag";

    $von = strtotime($vondatum);

    $bis = strtotime($bisdatum);

    $now = time();

    if (($now <= $bis) and ($now >= $von))

    {

        return TRUE;

    }

    else

    {

        return FALSE;

    }

}

?>



btw this fn checks if $now if between $fromdate and $todate

use it if you like

jeffrey at jhu dot edu
10-Jan-2003 10:51


In answer to gwyne at gmx dot net, dec 1, 2002:



For split(), when using a backslash as the delimiter, you have to *double escape* the backslash.



example:

==================================

<pre>

<?

$line = 'stuff\\\thing\doodad\\';

$linearray = split('\\\\', $line); //<--NOTE USE OF FOUR(4)backslashes

print join(":", $linearray);

?>

</pre>



==================================

output is:



<pre>

stuff::thing:doodad:

</pre>

paha at paha dot hu
22-Jul-2002 03:51


It's evident but not mentioned in the documentation that using asterisks is more restricted than in a normal regular expression.



for exaple you cannot say:



split(";*",$string);



because what if there's no ";" separator?(which is covered by this regular expression) 



so you have to use at least



split(";+",$quotatxt);



in this situation.

fotw at gmx dot net
17-Jun-2002 09:50


Ups! It seems that neither explode nor split REALY takes a STRING but only a single character as a string for splitting the string.

 I found this problem in one of my codes when trying to split a string using ";\n" as breaking string. The result, only ";" was thaken... the rest of the string was ignored.

 Same when I tried to substitute "\n" by any other thing. :(

not at anythingspecial dot com
17-Jun-2002 03:48


If you need to do a split on a period make sure you escape the period out..



$ext_arr = split("\.","something.jpg");

... because

$ext_arr = split(".","something.jpg"); won't work properly.

kang at elpmis dot com
12-Jun-2002 08:30


This is a good way to display a comma delimited file with two columns.  The first column is the URL's description, the second is the actual URL.



<ul>

<?php

  $fname="relatedlinks.csv";

  $fp=fopen($fname,"r") or die("Error found.");

  $line = fgets( $fp, 1024 );

  while(!feof($fp))

  {

    list($desc,$url,$dummy) = split( ",", $line, 3 );

    print "<li>";

    print "<a href='$url'>$desc</a>";

    print "</li>\n";

    $line = fgets( $fp, 1024 );

  }

  fclose($fp);

?>

</ul>

jchart at sdccu dot net
31-May-2002 09:56


[Ed. note: Close. The pipe *is* an operator in PHP, but


the reason this fails is because it's also an operator


in the regex syntax. The distinction here is important


since a PHP operator inside a string is just a character.]





The reason your code:





$line = "12|3|Fred"; 


list ($msgid, $msgref, $msgtopic)=split('|', $line); 





didn't work is because the "|" symbol is an operator in PHP. If you want to use the pipe symbol as a delimiter you must excape it with a back slash, "\|". You code should look like this:





$line = "12|3|Fred"; 


list ($msgid, $msgref, $msgtopic)=split('\|', $line);

mcgarry at tig dot com dot au
17-May-2002 12:27


split() doesn't like NUL characters within the string, it treats the first one it meets as the end of the string, so if you have data you want to split that can contain a NUL character you'll need to convert it into something else first, eg:



$line=str_replace(chr(0),'',$line);

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