How to convert php string to array

PHP, as a dynamic language, allows developers to dynamically generate, modify and use various data types during runtime, of which strings are the most common one. As a typical composite data type, strings are stored in the form of character arrays in many cases. For business scenarios that require converting strings into arrays, PHP provides various efficient implementation methods.

1. Use the explode function to convert a string into an array

The explode() function can convert a string into an array. This function must pass in two parameters. The first The first parameter is which character or characters are used as the separator. This character or characters are used as identifiers to split the string. The second parameter is the string to be converted.

You can see the following example:

$str = "apple,banana,orange";
$arr = explode(",", $str);
print_r($arr);

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

As mentioned above, this function returns an array where each element represents a part of the string.

2. Convert a string to an array using the str_split function

Another way to convert a string to an array is to use PHP's "str_split()" function. This function splits a string into a set of characters and returns an array of characters:

$str = "Hello, World!";
$arr = str_split($str);
print_r($arr);

Result: Array ( [0] => H [1] => e [2] => l [3 ] => l [4] => o [5] => , [6] => [7] => W [8] => o [9] => r [10] = > l [11] => d [12] => ! )

3. Use the preg_split function to convert the string into an array

Use "preg_split() " function to convert a string to an array is a very flexible option as it allows various patterns to be used to split the string.

$str = 'apple,orange,banana';
$pattern = '/,/';
$arr = preg_split($pattern, $str);
print_r($arr);

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

It can be seen that this function returns a arrays with identical functions. However, a powerful thing about this function is that it can divide the string into arrays using various patterns. This provides more flexibility in converting strings to arrays.

4. Convert JSON string into array

In web applications, JSON format has become a widely used data transmission format. Therefore, converting JSON-formatted strings into arrays in PHP is also a basic need. To achieve this purpose, PHP provides a built-in function "json_decode()". This function can accept a JSON string as input and convert it into a multidimensional associative array or anonymous object.

The following is an example of converting a JSON string to an array:

$json_string = '{"name":"Tom","age":25,"city":"New York"}';
$arr = json_decode($json_string);
print_r($arr);

Result: stdClass Object ( [name] => Tom [age] => 25 [city] => New York )

It can be noticed that when PHP parses a JSON string, it will create an anonymous object in the return value. In this case, the properties of this object can be accessed through syntax like "$arr->name".

Summary:

PHP provides a variety of methods for converting strings to arrays quickly and reliably, and these methods can cope with different application scenarios. For beginners, using the function "explode()" or "str_split()" to convert a string into an array is the easiest way; if you have special needs, you can use the "preg_split()" function; when you need to convert JSON When converting an encoded string to an array, it can be done using the built-in function "json_decode()".

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