PHP preg_split function

preg_split

(PHP 3 >= 3.0.9, PHP 4, PHP 5)

preg_split -- Split string by a regular expressionDescriptionarray preg_split ( string pattern, string subject [, int limit [, int flags]] )

Split the given string by a regular expression.

Parameters

pattern

The pattern to search for, as a string.

subject

The input string.

limit

If specified, then only substrings up to limit
are returned, and if limit is -1, it actually
means "no limit", which is useful for specifying the
flags.

flags

flags can be any combination of the following
flags (combined with bitwise | operator):

PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY

If this flag is set, only non-empty pieces will be returned by
preg_split().

PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE

If this flag is set, parenthesized expression in the delimiter pattern
will be captured and returned as well.

PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTURE

If this flag is set, for every occurring match the appendant string
offset will also be returned. Note that this changes the return
value in an array where every element is an array consisting of the
matched string at offset 0 and its string offset
into subject at offset 1.

Return Values

Returns an array containing substrings of subject
split along boundaries matched by pattern.

ChangeLog

VersionDescription4.3.0 The PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTURE was added
4.0.5 The PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE was added
4.0.0 The flags parameter was added

Examples

Example 1. preg_split() example : Get the parts of a search string

Example 2. Splitting a string into component characters

Example 3. Splitting a string into matches and their offsets

The above example will output:

Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => hypertext
[1] => 0
)

[1] => Array
(
[0] => language
[1] => 10
)

[2] => Array
(
[0] => programming
[1] => 19
)

)

Notes

Tip:
If you don't need the power of regular expressions, you can choose
faster (albeit simpler) alternatives like explode()
or str_split().

See Also

spliti()split()implode()preg_match()preg_match_all()preg_replace()