How to Split a String into an Array in PHP ?

In PHP, splitting a string into an array involves breaking a string into smaller parts based on a delimiter or a pattern and storing those parts as elements of an array.

This operation is useful for parsing text data, extracting substrings, or processing user input. PHP provides several functions to split a string into an array, including explode( ), str_split( ), and preg_split( ).

Function	Description
explode( )	Splits a string into an array of substrings based on a specified delimiter.
str_split( )	Splits a string into an array of characters, with each character becoming an element of the array.
preg_split( )	Splits a string into an array using a regular expression pattern as the delimiter.

Example: Implementation to split a string into an array.

PHP

<?php
// Using explode() function

$string = "apple,banana,orange";
$array1 = explode(",", $string);
echo "Using explode(): ";
print_r($array1);

// Using str_split() function

$string = "hello";
$array2 = str_split($string);
echo "Using str_split(): ";
print_r($array2);

// Using preg_split() function

$string = "apple, banana, orange";
$array3 = preg_split("/,\s*/", $string);
echo "Using preg_split(): ";
print_r($array3);
?>

Output:

Using explode(): Array
(
    [0] => apple
    [1] => banana
    [2] => orange
)
Using str_split(): Array
(
    [0] => h
    [1] => e
    [2] => l
    [3] => l
    [4] => o
)
Using preg_split(): Array
(
    [0] => apple
    [1] => banana
    [2] => orange
)