PHP reference

explode

Splits a string into an array by a separator.

Available since: PHP 4

Syntax

explode(string $separator, string $string, int $limit = PHP_INT_MAX): array

Parameter	Type	Description
$separator	string	The separator to split by.
$string	string	The source string.
$limit	int	The maximum number of elements. The last element receives the rest of the string.

arrayAn array of the string's parts.

Splitting by a comma:

<?php
 
print_r(explode(',', 'red,green,blue'));

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => red
    [1] => green
    [2] => blue
)

Limiting the number of parts:

<?php
 
print_r(explode(' ', 'one two three four', 2));

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => one
    [1] => two three four
)

An empty separator throws an error. To split a string into single characters, use mb_str_split().

Strings — Working with strings in PHP — quotes, concatenation, length, searching, replacing and multibyte functions.