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Bug #38912 preg_split('/\s+/', '') returns an array of length one
Submitted: 2006-09-21 14:11 UTC Modified: 2006-09-24 17:46 UTC
From: barry dot wills at providence dot org Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: PCRE related
PHP Version: 5.1.6 OS: Red Hat Fedora Core 4
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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From: barry dot wills at providence dot org
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 [2006-09-21 14:11 UTC] 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] => )


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 [2006-09-24 17:46 UTC] iliaa@php.net
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().
 
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