preg_split(3) [php man page]

PREG_SPLIT(3)								 1							     PREG_SPLIT(3)

preg_split - Split string by a regular expression

SYNOPSIS

       array preg_split (string  $pattern, string  $subject, [int  $limit = -1], [int  $flags])

DESCRIPTION

	Split the given string by a regular expression.

PARAMETERS

	      o $pattern
		- The pattern to search for, as a string.

	      o $subject
		- The input string.

	      o $limit
		-  If  specified, then only substrings up to $limit are returned with the rest of the string being placed in the last substring. A
		$limit of -1, 0 or NULL means "no limit" and, as is standard across PHP, you can use NULL to skip to the $flags parameter.

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

		     o PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY - If this flag is set, only non-empty pieces will be returned by preg_split(3).

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

		     o 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.

EXAMPLES

       Example #1

	      preg_split(3) example : Get the parts of a search string

	      <?php
	      // split the phrase by any number of commas or space characters,
	      // which include " ", 
, 	, 
 and f
	      $keywords = preg_split("/[s,]+/", "hypertext language, programming");
	      print_r($keywords);
	      ?>

	      The above example will output:

	      Array
	      (
		  [0] => hypertext
		  [1] => language
		  [2] => programming
	      )

       Example #2

	      Splitting a string into component characters

	      <?php
	      $str = 'string';
	      $chars = preg_split('//', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
	      print_r($chars);
	      ?>

	      The above example will output:

	      Array
	      (
		  [0] => s
		  [1] => t
		  [2] => r
		  [3] => i
		  [4] => n
		  [5] => g
	      )

       Example #3

	      Splitting a string into matches and their offsets

	      <?php
	      $str = 'hypertext language programming';
	      $chars = preg_split('/ /', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
	      print_r($chars);
	      ?>

	      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(3) or
	      str_split(3).

       Tip

	       If matching fails, an array with a single element containing the input string will be returned.

SEE ALSO

       PCRE Patterns, preg_quote(3), implode(3), preg_match(3), preg_match_all(3), preg_replace(3), preg_last_error(3).

PHP Documentation Group 													     PREG_SPLIT(3)

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SPLITI(3)								 1								 SPLITI(3)

spliti - Split string into array by regular expression case insensitive

SYNOPSIS

       array spliti (string  $pattern, string  $string, [int  $limit = -1])

DESCRIPTION

	Splits a $string into array by regular expression.

	This function is identical to split(3) except that this ignores case distinction when matching alphabetic characters.

       Warning

	      This function has been DEPRECATED as of PHP 5.3.0. Relying on this feature is highly discouraged.

PARAMETERS

	      o $pattern
		-  Case  insensitive  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 spliti(3) (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 for-
		mat, so you'll want to do something along the lines of man /usr/local/src/regex/regex.7 in order to read it.

	      o $string
		- The input string.

	      o $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 insensitive
       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, spliti(3) returns
       FALSE.

EXAMPLES

	This example splits a string using 'a' as the separator :

       Example #1

	      spliti(3) example

	      <?php
	      $string = "aBBBaCCCADDDaEEEaGGGA";
	      $chunks = spliti ("a", $string, 5);
	      print_r($chunks);
	      ?>

	      The above example will output:

	      Array
	      (
		[0] =>
		[1] => BBB
		[2] => CCC
		[3] => DDD
		[4] => EEEaGGGA
	      )

NOTES

       Note

	      As of PHP 5.3.0, the regex extension is deprecated in favor of the PCRE extension. Calling this function will issue an  E_DEPRECATED
	      notice. See the list of differences for help on converting to PCRE.

       Tip

	      spliti(3) is deprecated as of PHP 5.3.0. preg_split(3) with the i ( PCRE_CASELESS) modifier is the suggested alternative.

SEE ALSO

       preg_split(3), split(3), explode(3), implode(3).

PHP Documentation Group 														 SPLITI(3)

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preg_split(3) [php man page]

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