Calling PHP explode and access first element?

Question

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PHP syntax for dereferencing function result

I have a string, which looks like 1234#5678. Now I am calling this:

$last = explode("#", "1234#5678")[1]

Its not working, there is some syntax error...but where? What I expect is 5678 in $last. Is this not working in PHP?

You'll be able to do this (Array Dereferencing) in PHP 5.4, not in the current 5.3 — Gérald Croës, Jan 11 '12 at 15:15

Felix Kling · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-02T15:45:57.853

33

Array dereferencing is not possible in the current PHP versions (unfortunately). But you can use list ^[docs] to directly assign the array elements to variables:

list($first, $last) = explode("#", "1234#5678");

UPDATE

Since PHP 5.4 (released 01-Mar-2012) it supports array dereferencing.

edited Jun 02 '12 at 15:45

answered Jan 11 '12 at 11:28

Felix Kling

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and if you have many values in string then you can use $last = end(explode('#', $string)); – Govind Totla Feb 26 '13 at 11:11
Alternate for list is `list(,$last) = ....`. Then you won't have the first variable hanging when you don't need it. – Tyler Christian Nov 16 '17 at 20:30

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 11:26

13

Most likely PHP is getting confused by the syntax. Just assign the result of explode to an array variable and then use index on it:

$arr = explode("#", "1234#5678");
$last = $arr[1];

answered Jan 11 '12 at 11:26

Aleks G

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Wow, that sucks :D ... ok, good I know now. – EOB Jan 11 '12 at 11:28

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered May 06 '12 at 12:42

8

Here's how to get it down to one line:

$last = current(array_slice(explode("#", "1234#5678"), indx,1));

Where indx is the index you want in the array, in your example it was 1.

answered May 06 '12 at 12:42

ragamufin

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 11:29

You can't do this:

explode("#", "1234#5678")[1]

Because explode is a function, not an array. It returns an array, sure, but in PHP you can't treat the function as an array until it is set into an array.

This is how to do it:

 $last = explode('#', '1234#5678');
 $last = $last[1];

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 11:26

3

PHP can be a little dim. You probably need to do this on two lines:

$a = explode("#", "1234#5678");
$last = $a[1];

answered Jan 11 '12 at 11:26

Rob Agar

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Calling PHP explode and access first element?

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