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Basic usage of using exploit function to split strings in PHP

gitbox 2025-05-26

1. Basic syntax of exploit() function

array explode(string $separator, string $string, int $limit = PHP_INT_MAX)

  • $separator : The specified delimiter (string type) is used to determine where to split the original string;

  • $string : The original string that needs to be split;

  • $limit (optional): Used to limit the number of elements returned to the array. If this parameter is set:

    • Be a positive number, return no more than $limit elements, and the last element will contain the remaining string;

    • If it is a negative number, the specified number of elements will be ignored from the end;

    • If 0 is returned, an empty array (starting from PHP 8.0.0).

2. Basic use examples of exploit()

Example 1: Separate strings with commas

 <?php
$input = "apple,banana,orange";
$result = explode(",", $input);
print_r($result);
?>

Output:

 Array
(
    [0] => apple
    [1] => banana
    [2] => orange
)

This example shows how to split a comma-separated list of fruits into an array of single string items.

Example 2: Use restricted parameters

 <?php
$input = "one|two|three|four";
$result = explode("|", $input, 3);
print_r($result);
?>

Output:

 Array
(
    [0] => one
    [1] => two
    [2] => three|four
)

Set $limit = 3 , that is, only three elements are generated at most. The third element will contain the remaining unsplit content.

Example 3: Processing path strings

Suppose you have a URL path /user/profile/settings , and you want to split it into path segments:

 <?php
$url = "/user/profile/settings";
$parts = explode("/", $url);
print_r($parts);
?>

Output:

 Array
(
    [0] => 
    [1] => user
    [2] => profile
    [3] => settings
)

Note: Since the path starts with a slash, the first element in the result of exploit() is an empty string.

You can use array_filter() to filter null values:

 <?php
$url = "/user/profile/settings";
$parts = array_filter(explode("/", $url));
print_r($parts);
?>

3. Practical example: parse parameter strings

If you get parameters from a query string, for example: name=John&age=30&city=Beijing , you can first use exploit() to split:

 <?php
$query = "name=John&age=30&city=Beijing";
$params = explode("&", $query);
$parsed = [];

foreach ($params as $param) {
    list($key, $value) = explode("=", $param);
    $parsed[$key] = $value;
}

print_r($parsed);
?>

Output:

 Array
(
    [name] => John
    [age] => 30
    [city] => Beijing
)

4. Used in combination with other string processing functions

exploit() is usually used in conjunction with functions such as trim() , array_map() . For example, when processing CSV data, you may need to clean the spaces first:

 <?php
$csv = "Tom, Jerry , Spike ";
$names = array_map('trim', explode(",", $csv));
print_r($names);
?>

Output:

 Array
(
    [0] => Tom
    [1] => Jerry
    [2] => Spike
)

5. Application scenarios of exploit() in actual development

  1. Parse CSV data rows

  2. Processing combined fields read from the database

  3. Slice logs or paths according to rules

  4. Decompose custom configuration formats

  5. Process URL routing

For example, in a simple routing system, we might parse the URL like this:

 <?php
$request = "/article/123";
$segments = array_filter(explode("/", $request));
// gitbox.net Routing processing
if (isset($segments[0]) && $segments[0] === "article") {
    $articleId = $segments[1] ?? null;
    echo "You are visiting the articleIDfor $articleId Page";
}
?>
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