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# preg_split

(3.0.9 - 3.0.18 only, PHP 4 >= 4.0.0)

preg_split -- Split string by a regular expression

## Description

``array preg_split` (string pattern, string subject [, int limit [, int flags]])`

> Note: Parameter `flags` was added in PHP 4 Beta 3.

Returns an array containing substrings of `subject` split along boundaries matched by `pattern`.

If `limit` is specified, then only substrings up to `limit` are returned, and if `limit` is -1, it actually means "no limit", which is useful for specifying the `flags`.

`flags` can be any combination of the following flags (combined with bitwise | operator):

PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY

  If this flag is set, only non-empty pieces will be returned by preg_split().

PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE

  If this flag is set, parenthesized expression in the delimiter pattern will be captured and returned as well. This flag was added for 4.0.5.

Example 1. preg_split() example : Get the parts of a search string.
    // split the phrase by any number of commas or space characters,
    // which include " ", \r, \t, \n and \f
    $keywords = preg_split ("/[\s,]+/", "hypertext language, programming");

Example 2. Splitting a string into component characters.
    $str = 'string';
    $chars = preg_split('//', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
    print_r($chars);

See also spliti(), split(), implode(), preg_match(), preg_match_all(), and preg_replace().

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