PHP explode

PHP explode is practically the opposite of implode. This divides a string in substrings that are stored in an array

This function receives 3 parameters, the delimiter (string) that is where the string will be cut, another one that is the string and a third parameter that is optional called limit.

Explode Syntaxis

explode($delimiter,$string,$limit)

$delimiter – Is a string that contains the character or string of character where the string will be cut.

$string – the string where explode will be implemented.

$limit – if it’s used, explode will return the quantity of elements specified in $limit in the array and the last one is the rest of the string. In case that $limit have negative value will return the array without quantity of elements specified in $limit.

Use Cases of PHP Explode

In this section, we will see some situations in which we might use the explode function. Remember that explode separates a string into an array based on a specified character.

Lunes,martes,miércoles,jueves,viernes,sábado,domingo

$linea = " Lunes,martes,miércoles,jueves,viernes,sábado,domingo";
$datos = explode(",", $linea);

$parametros = "param1=value1&param2=value2&param3=value3";
$parametrosArray = explode("&", $parametros);

<?php
$fechahoy= time();
$fh= date('Y-m-d', $fechahoy);
$arrfecha = explode("-",$fh);
foreach ($arrfecha as $element){
    echo "<p>$element</p>";
}

These are some examples where you could use explode.

Examples of PHP explode function

Imagine that we have a URL, and we want to get a value from it.

<?php
   $url = "hombres/camisetas/rojas";
   $array = explode("/",$url);
   echo $array[0]."\n";
   echo $array[1]."\n";
   echo $array[2]."\n";
?>

hombres
camisetas
rojas

Using $limit

<?php
   $url = "hombres/camisetas/rojas";
   $array = explode("/",$url,2);
   var_dump($array);
?>

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(7) "hombres"
  [1]=>
  string(15) "camisetas/rojas"
}

Let’s change $limit= -2

<?php
   $url = "hombres/camisetas/rojas";
   $array = explode("/",$url,-2);
   var_dump($array);
?>

array(1) {
  [0]=>
  string(7) "hombres"
}

In last example we will change $limit=-1 to understand what does $limit

<?php
   $url = "hombres/camisetas/rojas";
   $array = explode("/",$url,-1);
   var_dump($array);
?>

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(7) "hombres"
  [1]=>
  string(9) "camisetas"
}