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Doc Bug #62613 'explode' quirk
Submitted: 2012-07-19 20:24 UTC Modified: 2012-07-19 21:19 UTC
From: matthew at binaryrefined dot net Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Arrays related
PHP Version: 5.4.4 OS: Win XP, SP3
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2012-07-19 20:24 UTC] 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] => )

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 [2012-07-19 20:49 UTC] 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 21:19 UTC] bjori@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug
 [2012-07-19 21:19 UTC] bjori@php.net 
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
 
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