(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)
mb_split — Split multibyte string using regular expression
$pattern
, string $string
[, int $limit = -1
] )
Split a multibyte
string using regular expression
pattern and returns the result as an
array.
patternThe regular expression pattern.
stringThe string being split.
limitlimit is specified,
it will be split in limit elements as
maximum.
The result as an array.
Note:
The character encoding specified by mb_regex_encoding() will be used as the character encoding for this function by default.
I figure most people will want a simple way to break-up a multibyte string into its individual characters. Here's a function I'm using to do that. Change UTF-8 to your chosen encoding method.
<?php
function mbStringToArray ($string) {
$strlen = mb_strlen($string);
while ($strlen) {
$array[] = mb_substr($string,0,1,"UTF-8");
$string = mb_substr($string,1,$strlen,"UTF-8");
$strlen = mb_strlen($string);
}
return $array;
}
?>
In addition to Sezer Yalcin's tip.
This function splits a multibyte string into an array of characters. Comparable to str_split().
<?php
function mb_str_split( $string ) {
# Split at all position not after the start: ^
# and not before the end: $
return preg_split('/(?<!^)(?!$)/u', $string );
}
$string = '火车票';
$charlist = mb_str_split( $string );
print_r( $charlist );
?>
# Prints:
Array
(
[0] => 火
[1] => 车
[2] => 票
)
The $pattern argument doesn't use /pattern/ delimiters, unlike other regex functions such as preg_match.
<?php
# Works. No slashes around the /pattern/
print_r( mb_split("\s", "hello world") );
Array (
[0] => hello
[1] => world
)
# Doesn't work:
print_r( mb_split("/\s/", "hello world") );
Array (
[0] => hello world
)
?>
To split an string like this: "日、に、本、ほん、語、ご" using the "、" delimiter i used:
$v = mb_split('、',"日、に、本、ほん、語、ご");
but didn't work.
The solution was to set this before:
mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');
mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");
$v = mb_split('、',"日、に、本、ほん、語、ご");
and now it's working:
Array
(
[0] => 日
[1] => に
[2] => 本
[3] => ほん
[4] => 語
[5] => ご
)
a (simpler) way to extract all characters from a UTF-8 string to array with a single call to a built-in function:
<?php
$str = 'Ма-
руся';
print_r(preg_split('//u', $str, null, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY));
?>
Output:
Array
(
[0] => М
[1] => а
[2] => -
[3] =>
[4] => р
[5] => у
[6] => с
[7] => я
)
an other way to str_split multibyte string:
<?php
$s='әӘөүҗңһ';
//$temp_s=iconv('UTF-8','UTF-16',$s);
$temp_s=mb_convert_encoding($s,'UTF-16','UTF-8');
$temp_a=str_split($temp_s,4);
$temp_a_len=count($temp_a);
for($i=0;$i<$temp_a_len;$i++){
//$temp_a[$i]=iconv('UTF-16','UTF-8',$temp_a[$i]);
$temp_a[$i]=mb_convert_encoding($temp_a[$i],'UTF-8','UTF-16');
}
echo('<pre>');
print_r($temp_a);
echo('</pre>');
//also possible to directly use UTF-16:
define('SLS',mb_convert_encoding('/','UTF-16'));
$temp_s=mb_convert_encoding($s,'UTF-16','UTF-8');
$temp_a=str_split($temp_s,4);
$temp_s=implode(SLS,$temp_a);
$temp_s=mb_convert_encoding($temp_s,'UTF-8','UTF-16');
echo($temp_s);
?>
We are talking about Multi Byte ( e.g. UTF-8) strings here, so preg_split will fail for the following string:
'Weiße Rosen sind nicht grün!'
And because I didn't find a regex to simulate a str_split I optimized the first solution from adjwilli a bit:
<?php
$string = 'Weiße Rosen sind nicht grün!'
$stop = mb_strlen( $string);
$result = array();
for( $idx = 0; $idx < $stop; $idx++)
{
$result[] = mb_substr( $string, $idx, 1);
}
?>
Here is an example with adjwilli's function:
<?php
mb_internal_encoding( 'UTF-8');
mb_regex_encoding( 'UTF-8');
function mbStringToArray
( $string
)
{
$stop = mb_strlen( $string);
$result = array();
for( $idx = 0; $idx < $stop; $idx++)
{
$result[] = mb_substr( $string, $idx, 1);
}
return $result;
}
echo '<pre>', PHP_EOL,
print_r( mbStringToArray( 'Weiße Rosen sind nicht grün!', true)), PHP_EOL,
'</pre>';
?>
Let me know [by personal email], if someone found a regex to simulate a str_split with mb_split.
