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How to Avoid Garbled Characters When Using the explode Function with Chinese Strings: Tips and Solutions for Handling Chinese Strings

gitbox 2025-08-25

In PHP, the explode function is a commonly used string manipulation function that splits a string into an array based on a specified delimiter. When handling Chinese strings, using explode may result in garbled characters. This usually occurs due to inconsistent character encoding or incompatible delimiters. Therefore, developers need to pay special attention to certain details to ensure that Chinese characters are handled correctly when using explode, avoiding encoding issues.

1. Character Encoding Issues

By default, the explode function in PHP splits strings based on bytes. If the string's encoding does not match the system's encoding, especially when handling Chinese characters, garbled text can occur. Typically, Chinese strings are stored in UTF-8 encoding, and if explode does not properly recognize this encoding, it may fail to process the characters correctly.

Solution: Standardize Character Encoding

To avoid encoding problems, you can standardize the string encoding before using explode. The mb_convert_encoding function can convert a string to UTF-8 encoding, ensuring that explode handles Chinese characters correctly. For example:

<?php
$string = "你好,世界,欢迎使用PHP";
$string = mb_convert_encoding($string, "UTF-8", "auto"); // Convert to UTF-8 encoding
$result = explode(",", $string);
print_r($result);
?>

In this example, mb_convert_encoding converts the input string to UTF-8 encoding. Regardless of the original encoding, explode can then correctly handle Chinese characters.

2. Choosing the Right Delimiter

When using explode to split a string, the choice of delimiter is crucial. When dealing with Chinese strings, especially those containing special characters or symbols, the delimiter can affect the results. For instance, using a Chinese comma (“,”) as a delimiter may cause explode to fail or produce incorrect results.

Solution: Ensure the Delimiter Matches

When processing Chinese strings, make sure the delimiter exactly matches the characters in the string, particularly when using Chinese symbols. If unsure of the delimiter’s encoding, output the string’s hexadecimal representation to verify the delimiter’s encoding. For example:

<?php
$string = "你好,世界,欢迎使用PHP"; // Chinese commas
$delimiter = ","; // Use Chinese comma as delimiter
$result = explode($delimiter, $string);
print_r($result);
?>

In this example, using the Chinese comma “,” allows explode to accurately split the string.

3. Using Multibyte String Functions

If explode fails to split a string containing Chinese characters correctly, consider using PHP’s multibyte string functions (mbstring extension). The mb_split function is the multibyte equivalent of explode and can handle Chinese characters more reliably.

Solution: Use the mb_split Function

The mb_split function processes multibyte characters to ensure that Chinese strings are handled properly without being affected by character length or encoding. For example:

<?php
$string = "你好,世界,欢迎使用PHP";
$delimiter = ","; // Use Chinese comma as delimiter
$result = mb_split($delimiter, $string);
print_r($result);
?>

Similar to explode, mb_split splits a string by a specified delimiter but is better suited for handling multibyte characters like Chinese.

4. Considerations for String Length

The explode function splits strings based on the delimiter. If a string contains many Chinese characters or if there is no space after a delimiter, the resulting array may be inaccurate. Since explode works at the byte level by default, it may split characters incorrectly.

Solution: Use mb_strlen to Check String Length

Before using explode, use mb_strlen to check the string’s length, ensuring that each character is handled correctly.

<?php
$string = "你好,世界,欢迎使用PHP";
$length = mb_strlen($string, "UTF-8");
echo "String length: $length\n"; // Output the string length
$result = explode(",", $string);
print_r($result);
?>

Checking the string length with mb_strlen ensures that each character is correctly split.

Conclusion

When using the explode function with Chinese strings, pay close attention to character encoding, delimiter selection, and multibyte character handling. By using mb_convert_encoding for encoding conversion, choosing the correct delimiter, and leveraging multibyte functions like mb_split, you can effectively avoid garbled characters and ensure that strings are split correctly. Mastering these techniques allows developers to handle Chinese strings more efficiently and reduce issues caused by encoding problems.