Doc #62613 [Opn->Nab]: 'explode' quirk

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=62613&edit=1 ID: 62613 Updated by: bjori@php.net Reported by: matthew at binaryrefined dot net Summary: 'explode' quirk -Status: Open +Status: Not a bug Type: Documentation Problem Package: Arrays related Operating System: Win XP, SP3 PHP Version: 5.4.4 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Why would it be empty? explode() creates an new array, finds the first element of $delimiter chops it away and pushes the element to the array. Then continues until there are no more instances of $delimiter, then pushes the last string to the return array... Which means.. If there are no hits of the $delimiter, you'll just get the same string.. in an array of one element.. the same original string. Why should empty argument have an special treatment? o.O Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-07-19 20:49:25] matthew at binaryrefined dot net To block against this, I've had to do a boolean check against the variable before applying explode to ensure an empty source string will produce an empty array: if ($x) { $x = explode('|', $x); } else { ... } // $x is empty, and if passed to explode, results in an array with a single, empty element. I've been developing with PHP for ~10 years and I cannot ever remember having to do this with explode. The more I think about it, the more I believe this may be a bug? Thanks for the time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-07-19 20:24:18] matthew at binaryrefined dot net Description: ------------ When providing an empty source string to explode, it returns an array with a single, empty element. Expected behavior was an empty array. Test script: --------------- <?php $x = explode('|', ''); // '' would be a variable, and not intentionally empty. print_r($x); ?> Expected result: ---------------- Array () Actual result: -------------- Array ( [0] => ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=62613&edit=1