CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpstringsplit
aslum
aslum

Reputation: 12264

Split text after first space to create new variable and modify the original string

I want to split a string into two variables, the first word and the rest of the string. The first word is only ever going to be one of 4 different words.

$string = explode (' ', $string, 2);
$word = $string[0];
$string = $string[1];

The above seems like it works, but I'm wondering if there is a better way.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 2521

Answers (4)

mickmackusa
mickmackusa

Reputation: 48073

In modern PHP, list() has been replaced by function-less "array destructuring" syntax.

[$word, $string] = explode(' ', $string, 2);

This will populate $word with the substring that occurs before the first space; the remaining substring (after the first space) will overwrite the original $string value.

Code: (Demo)

$string = 'This is a test';

[$word, $string] = explode(' ', $string, 2);

var_dump($word, $string);

Output:

string(4) "This"
string(9) "is a test"

Caution: If the input string does not contain a space (e.g. $string = 'This';), then you'll get:

Warning: Undefined array key 1
string(4) "This"
NULL

Upvotes: 0

thetaiko
thetaiko

Reputation: 7834

list($word, $string) = explode(' ', $a, 2);

Upvotes: 1

Felix Kling
Felix Kling

Reputation: 817128

You can use list():

list($word, $string) = explode (' ', $string, 2);

But it is already fine. Regular expressions would be overkill in this case.

Upvotes: 7

Daniel Egeberg
Daniel Egeberg

Reputation: 8382

There are many ways you can do it. Using regular expressions, using strtok(), etc. Using explode() the way you are doing is quite fine.

Upvotes: 3

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