Differences between explode and split functions in php

At one level, the explode and split functions in php are used to split characters into arrays. However, there are still differences between explode and split, next I will introduce it to you.

First, let's take a look at the definitions of the two methods:

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

Function prototype: array explode (string $ separator, string $ string [, int $ limit])

There is no difference at first glance, and it seems that all functions are the same. I made this mistake. Note that the first parameters of the two functions are string $ pattern and string separator. $ pattern indicates a regular string, and $ separator indicates a normal string. See the following code:

The Code is as follows:	Copy code
$ Test = end (explode ('.', 'abc.txt ')); Echo $ test; // output txt Replace: $ Test1 = end(split('.', 'abc.txt ')); Echo $ test1; // no output

The correct method to use split is to add escape characters.

$ Test1 = end(split('.', 'abc.txt '));

Echo $ test1; // output txt

 
Analysis: The "." symbol is the keyword of the regular expression, so split is invalid, while explode is valid.

Parsing dates that may be separated by diagonal lines, points, or horizontal lines:

Example 2. split () Example

<? Php
// The delimiter can be a diagonal line, a dot, or a horizontal line.
$ Date = "04/30/1973 ";
List ($ month, $ day, $ year) = split ('[/.-]', $ date );
Echo "Month: $ month; Day: $ day; Year: $ year <br/> n ";
?>

For examples of the behavior similar to @ chars = split ('', $ str) in Perl, see the example in the preg_split () function.

Note that pattern is a regular expression. If you want to use a delimiter that is a special character in a regular expression, you must first escape it. If the split () (or any other regex function) behavior is odd, read the regex.7 file contained in the regex/subdirectory of the PHP release package. This file is in the manual page format