PHP explode Function, Best Practice, Usage With Examples

PHP is a very powerful language that is used to develop server-side web applications.

And php explode is the php function that is used to break or convert a string into array.

Let’s take a look to an example how php explode function works.

<?php
$str = "Welcome to my website Heapcoding.";
print_r (explode(" ",$str));
?>

The above code will generate the following output.

Array ( [0] => Welcome [1] => to [2] => my [3] => website [4] => Heapcoding. )

Let’s discuss the above example.

Table of Contents

<?php

This is the starting tag of php script in which we start writing php code.

This is the php veriable where the value “Welcome to my website Heapcoding.” stored.

This is the php function through which we print the object for better visualization.

Here is our main php explode function which takes two parameters.

First argument is separator that defines from where we need to break string and convert to array element.
Second argument is the actual string to which we want to break into array.

The explode function is used to break a string into an array.

Note: The separator couldn’t be an empty string.

Note: PHP explode function is binary-safe.

explode(separator,string,limit)

Parameter	Description
Separator	This is required parameter which specifies from where to break string and convert to array element.
String	This is required parameter which is the main string that needs to be converted into array.
Limit	This is optional parameter that specifies how much number of array elements you want to return in output. Possible Values: 1. Greater than 0: Returns an array with the maximum number of limit element(s). 2. Less than 0: Returns an array except for the last limit elements. 3. 0: Returns an array with only one element.

Return Value	Returns an array of strings.
PHP Version	4+
Changelog	The PHP parameter was added when PHP version 4.0.1 was released and support for negative limits was added when PHP version 5.1.0 was released

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