#38912 [Opn->Bgs]: preg_split('/\s+/', '') returns an array of length one

ID: 38912 Updated by: iliaa@php.net Reported By: barry dot wills at providence dot org -Status: Open +Status: Bogus Bug Type: PCRE related Operating System: Red Hat Fedora Core 4 PHP Version: 5.1.6 New Comment: Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php To avoid empty matches you need to pass the PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY flag to preg_split(). Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2006-09-21 14:11:31] barry dot wills at providence dot org Description: ------------ preg_split('/\s/', '') is used to split a string whose fields are delimited by whitespace chars. When the string is empty (""), preg_split returns a populated array rather than an empty array. Expected: the equivalent in Perl returns an empty array (split(/\s/, '')). Unexpected: preg_split in PHP returns a populated array. Reproduce code: --------------- // Example 1 produces: Array ( [0] => ) $a = preg_split('/\s/', ''); print_r($a); // Example 2 produces: Array ( [0] => ) $a = preg_split('/\s+/', ''); print_r($a); // Example 3 produces: Array ( [0] => [1] => ) $a = preg_split('/\s*/', ''); print_r($a); // Perl produces an empty array in all three cases. Expected result: ---------------- No output. Which is to say, the above code should be equivalent to PHP's: $a = array(); Actual result: -------------- Array ( [0] => ) Array ( [0] => ) Array ( [0] => [1] => ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=38912&edit=1