Split string with delimiting character into two variables?

Question

Say I have the following: 44-xkIolspO

I want to return 2 variables:

$one = "44";
$two = "xkIolspO";

What would be the best way to do this?

Remember, the manual lists every function you could ever want: php.net/ref.strings — Jonah
– Jonah, Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 3:17
Well, unless you know how many variables you must get, list() may render quite useless. Manual assignment is better. In such cases, use a foreach() to create an array of values. — Fr0zenFyr
– Fr0zenFyr, Commented Apr 11, 2019 at 5:56

Chandu · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-19 03:07:14Z

44

Try this:

~~list($one, $two) = split("-", "44-xkIolspO", 2);~~

list($one, $two) = explode("-", "44-xkIolspO", 2);

edited Jan 19, 2011 at 3:07

answered Jan 19, 2011 at 3:02

Chandu

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5 Comments

sdleihssirhc Over a year ago

Awesome, except that split is deprecated. A more future-proof solution would probably be explode.

Mihai Toader Over a year ago

use preg_split("/-/", "44-xkIolspO");

Chandu Over a year ago

Updated the post to use explode. Hope its not deprecated yet.

Mike Kormendy Over a year ago

According to micro-optimization.com/explode-vs-preg_split using preg_split is 69% faster.

philip Over a year ago

@MikeKormendy when you read the article it says "f2 is slower than f1 by 68.73% " where f2 is the preg_split and f1 is the explode. So, unless I'm missing something obvious, the article is saying that explode is 69% fater than preg_split

Alix Axel · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-19 03:12:13Z

11

PHP has a function called preg_split() splits a string using a regular expression. This should do what you want.

Or explode() might be easier.

    $str = "44-xkIolspO";
    $parts = explode("-", $str);
    $one = $parts[0];
    $two = $parts[1];

edited Jan 19, 2011 at 3:12

Alix Axel

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answered Jan 19, 2011 at 3:02

Vincent Ramdhanie

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1 Comment

Jonah Over a year ago

I don't think preg_split is anywhere near necessary in this case. Regular expression parsing is much less efficient than a delimiter string.

mickmackusa · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-29 21:42:01Z

There are a number of native, single-function solutions to split on your delimiting character. Demo

sscanf() offers two styles of implementation -- reference variables as trailing parameters or if there are no references it will return the captures as an array. The power is in the placeholders -- %d will return the leading number from the sample input as an integer-type value. Recommended if your string is predictably formatted.
```
sscanf($text, '%d-%s', $one, $two);
```
or destructure the return:
```
[$one, $two] = sscanf($text, '%d-%s');
```
explode() is the most commonly used tool for this task and certainly reliable for thus task. Its return value will need to be destructured as individual variables.
```
[$one, $two] = explode('-', $text);
```
str_getcsv() can be modified to split on hyphens instead of commas. While this approach works on the sample string, this function provides some magic behaviors regarding escaping which may not be desirable for general-use. Not recommended.
```
[$one, $two] = str_getcsv($text, '-');
```
preg_split() will work just like explode() if fed the literal hyphen in a regular expression, but less efficiently than all other mentioned techniques. It has helpful behavior modifying flags but none which are helpful for this task. Not recommended.
```
[$one, $two] = preg_split('/-/', $text);
```

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