Explode string into array with no empty elements?

Question

PHP's explode function returns an array of strings split on some provided substring. It will return empty strings when there are leading, trailing, or consecutive delimiters, like this:

var_dump(explode('/', '1/2//3/')); array(5) {   [0]=>   string(1) "1"   [1]=>   string(1) "2"   [2]=>   string(0) ""   [3]=>   string(1) "3"   [4]=>   string(0) "" } 

Is there some different function or option or anything that would return everything except the empty strings?

var_dump(different_explode('/', '1/2//3/')); array(3) {   [0]=>   string(1) "1"   [1]=>   string(1) "2"   [2]=>   string(1) "3" } 

Answer 1

Try preg_split.

$exploded = preg_split('@/@', '1/2//3/', NULL, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);

Answer 2

array_filter will remove the blank fields, here is an example without the filter:

print_r(explode('/', '1/2//3/')) 

prints:

Array (     [0] => 1     [1] => 2     [2] =>     [3] => 3     [4] => ) 

With the filter:

php> print_r(array_filter(explode('/', '1/2//3/'))) 

Prints:

Array (     [0] => 1     [1] => 2     [3] => 3 ) 

You'll get all values that resolve to "false" filtered out.

see http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.array-filter.php