note 71271 added to function.explode

As ian at illumen pointed out, exploding empty strings results in a one-element array, a behaviour you want to fix on many occasions, either by including an extra test for empty strings, or by using preg_split. I found preg_split with the PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY switch to be 3 times slower than explode with an extra test. Comparing expression (1) and (2), (1): ($a?explode("\t",$a):array()) (2): preg_split("/\t/","",-1,PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY) looping through 1M repetitions on an AMD box running php4-cli under linux, (2) took 2.7 seconds while (1) took 1 second. ---- Server IP: 217.13.201.10 Probable Submitter: 88.73.247.183 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/71271 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/71271 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/71271 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php