Split the first space and the last space in a string and limit the size of output in 3

Question

Suppose I have a string:

ABC DEF SASF  123 (35)

And my expected output like:

Array (
     [0] => ABC
     [1] => DEF SASF  123
     [2] => (35)
)

I am trying to do this with $str = preg_split("/(^\S+\s+)|\s+(?=\S+$)/",$str, 3); But the current problem is this RegEx will replace the content in $str[0] and it would be like

Array (
     [0] => 
     [1] => DEF SASF  123
     [2] => (35)
)

How can I modify the RegEx to output my expected result ?

The online example: https://www.regex101.com/r/rK5lU1/2

Answer 1

Just split your input string according to the below regex.

^\S+\K\s+|\s+(?=\S+$)

Just match the first word and then discard it by adding \K next to \S+. Then match the following one or more spaces. | OR match one more spaces which was just before to the last word. \S+ matches one or more non-space characters.

DEMO

$str = "ABC DEF SASF  123 (35)";
$match = preg_split('~^\S+\K\s+|\s+(?=\S+$)~', $str);
print_r($match);

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => ABC
    [1] => DEF SASF  123
    [2] => (35)
)

Answer 2

^(\S+)\s+|\s+(?=\S+$)

Try splitting by this. Sample code.

preg_split('/^(\S+)\s+|\s+(?=\S+$)/', 'ABC DEF SASF  123 (35)', -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE)

Or just match and grab the captures instead of split.

^(\S+)\s+(.*?)\s+(\S+)$

See demo

$re = "/^(\\S+)\\s+(.*?)\\s+(\\S+)$/";
$str = "ABC DEF SASF 123 (35)";

preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches);