PHP explode() Function

Syntax

explode(separator,$string,limit)

Parameters

separator(required): The boundary string.

$string(required): The input string to split.

limit(optional): It specifies the number of array elements to return. This can be any integer.

• Positive: If a positive value is passed as the limit parameter, the returned array will contain a maximum of ‘limit’ elements, with the last element containing the rest of the string.
• Negative: If a negative value is passed as the limit parameter, the returned array will contain all components except for the last -limit are returned.
• Zer0: If a zero value is passed as the limit parameter, the returned array will consist of a single element containing the entire string.

Return value

It returns an array of strings.

Visual Representation

Example 1: How to Use explode() function

<?php

$str = "Google Tesla Meta Amazon Apple";
$arr = explode(" ", $str);
print_r($arr);

Output

Array
(
 [0] => Google
 [1] => Tesla
 [2] => Meta
 [3] => Amazon
 [4] => Apple
)

Example 2: Passing limit parameter

<?php

$str = "Google|Tesla|Meta|Amazon|Apple";
$arr = explode("|", $str, -2);
$arr2 = explode("|", $str, 2);
$arr3 = explode("|", $str, 0);

echo "negative :"."\n";
print_r($arr)."\n";

echo "positive :"."\n";
print_r($arr2)."\n";

echo "zero :"."\n";
print_r($arr3)."\n";

Output

negative :
Array
(
 [0] => Google
 [1] => Tesla
 [2] => Meta
)
positive :
Array
(
 [0] => Google
 [1] => Tesla|Meta|Amazon|Apple
)
zero :
Array
(
 [0] => Google|Tesla|Meta|Amazon|Apple
)

Example 3: Split empty string

<?php

$str = "";
$arr = explode(",", $str);
print_r($arr);

Output

Array
(
 [0] => 
)

If you split the empty string, you get the one-element array with 0 as the key and the empty string for the value.

That’s it.