PHP explode() function issue

Question

Please help me out on this explode() function issue. I am getting unexpected results for the third scenario, what's the explanation?

EDIT: The value $page_string is actually from the database. This time I did the tests using var_dump instead of echo. The strings, How does php count them? How is "15&page" count 11?

var_dump($page_string);//string(11) "15&page"

1. Pop out ampersand ... fine.

    $page_id_array = explode("&",$page_string);
    $page_id = $page_id_array[0]; 
    var_dump($page_id); 
    // string(2) "15"

2. Pop out number ... fine

    $page_id_array = explode("15",$page_string);
    $page_id = $page_id_array[1]; 
    var_dump($page_id); 
    //string(9) "&blog"

3. Pop out '&page' ... why?

     $page_id_array = explode("&page",$page_string);
     $page_id = $page_id_array[0]; 
     var_dump($page_id); 
     //string(11) "15&page"
     var_dump($page_id_array[1]);
     //NULL

EDIT: After answer and comments from jasonbar I did the test which confirms his answer:

     $page_id_array = explode("&amp;page",$page_string);
     $page_id = $page_id_array[0]; 
     var_dump($page_id); 
     //string(2) "15"

These results are simply not correct. The only correct one is #1. Please run your own code. use var_dump(). view html source output. — goat
– goat, Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 4:27
I am going to post the longer version. The problem might not have been in this part of the code. — erastusnjuki
– erastusnjuki, Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 4:39
You should look at the original comment and answer. 15&page is 11 characters long. — jasonbar
– jasonbar, Commented Feb 24, 2010 at 5:18

jasonbar · Accepted Answer · 2010-02-24 04:14:27Z

6

I think my comment seems a likely explanation. I tried out your code using "15&page" as the test string and it explodes properly using '&page' as the delimiter.

Make sure the & isn't actually encoded as &

You could try print_r'ing the array you get back from explode() to see if thats really the case. If so you would end up with 15, amp;page when exploding on just '&'.

answered Feb 24, 2010 at 4:14

jasonbar

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jasonbar Over a year ago

@erastusnjuki: Your question update seems to confirm this theory. It appears your string has the ampersand encoded as an html entity.

Jonathan · Accepted Answer · 2010-02-24 04:39:17Z

1

I've run the following with PHP5. Can you provide a complete script? What version of PHP are you running?

$page_string = "15&page";

$page_id_array = explode("&",$page_string);
var_dump($page_id_array);
// array has 2 values, 15 and page
$page_id = $page_id_array[0]; 
echo '<br/>'.$page_id.'<br/>'; 

$page_id_array = explode("15",$page_string);
var_dump($page_id_array);
// array has 2 values, <empty> and &page
$page_id = $page_id_array[0]; 
echo '<br/>'.$page_id.'<br/>'; 

$page_id_array = explode("&page",$page_string);
var_dump($page_id_array);
// array has 2 values, 15 and <empty>
$page_id = $page_id_array[0]; 
echo '<br/>'.$page_id.'<br/>';

answered Feb 24, 2010 at 4:39

Jonathan

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