PHP split alternative?

split is deprecated since it is part of the family of functions which make use of POSIX regular expressions; that entire family is deprecated in favour of the PCRE (preg_*) functions.

If you do not need the regular expression functionality, then explode is a very good choice (and would have been recommended over split even if that were not deprecated), if on the other hand you do need to use regular expressions then the PCRE alternate is simply preg_split.

explode is an alternative. However, if you meant to split through a regular expression, the alternative is preg_split instead.

I want to clear here that preg_split(); is far away from it but explode(); can be used in similar way as split();

following is the comparison between split(); and explode(); usage

How was split() used

<?php

$date = "04/30/1973";
list($month, $day, $year) = split('[/.-]', $date);
echo $month; // foo
echo $day; // *
echo $year;

?>

URL: http://php.net/manual/en/function.split.php

How explode() can be used

<?php

$data = "04/30/1973";
list($month, $day, $year) = explode("/", $data);
echo $month; // foo
echo $day; // *
echo $year;

?>

URL: http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php

Here is how we can use it :)

• preg_split if you need to split by regular expressions.
• str_split if you need to split by characters.
• explode if you need to split by something simple.

Also for the future, if you ever want to know what PHP wants you to use if something is deprecated you can always check out the function in the manual and it will tell you alternatives.