C# PHP Explode Function

You want to develop an equivalent to the PHP explode function in the C# programming language. In the PHP language, explode splits a string on another string, while the str_split separates characters. Here we see ways you can adapt your PHP code that uses the explode function to C# code that uses the Split method on the string type.

This article shows how to split strings in both PHP and the C# language. An explode function separates strings.

Example 1

First, take a look at the PHP.net website's first example on explode. This PHP code will, when in a PHP file, print out the two pizza slices. The C# equivalent here uses the Split method with the string[] array overload. When you need to use a string[] array to split strings, you must provide the StringSplitOptions named constant.

Program that uses PHP explode [PHP]

<?php
// Example 1
$pizza  = "piece1 piece2 piece3 piece4 piece5 piece6";
$pieces = explode(" ", $pizza);
echo $pieces[0]; // piece1
echo $pieces[1]; // piece2
?>

Program that uses Split instead of Explode [C#]

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
	// Example 1
	string pizza = "piece1 piece2 piece3 piece4 piece5 piece6";
	string[] pieces = pizza.Split(new string[] { " " },
	    StringSplitOptions.None);
	Console.WriteLine(pieces[0]); // piece1
	Console.WriteLine(pieces[1]); // piece2
    }
}

Output

piece1
piece2

Example 2

Now we look at the second example from PHP, which uses a style of coding developers don't normally use in the C# language. It assigns six strings to the string array returned by explode. In C# code, you cannot access past the end of the array returned by Split, which means you cannot assign strings to array positions that don't exist.

Program that uses PHP explode [PHP]

<?php
// Example 2
$data = "foo:*:1023:1000::/home/foo:/bin/sh";
list($user, $pass, $uid, $gid, $gecos, $home, $shell) = explode(":", $data);
echo $user; // foo
echo $pass; // *
?>

Equivalent program [C#]

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
	// Example 2
	string data = "foo:*:1023:1000::/home/foo:/bin/sh";
	string[] s = data.Split(new string[] { ":" }, StringSplitOptions.None);
	string user = null;
	string pass = null;
	string uid = null;
	string gecos = null;
	string home = null;
	string shell = null;

	if (s.Length > 0)
	{
	    user = s[0];
	}
	if (s.Length > 1)
	{
	    pass = s[1];
	}
	if (s.Length > 2)
	{
	    uid = s[2];
	}
	if (s.Length > 3)
	{
	    gecos = s[3];
	}
	if (s.Length > 4)
	{
	    home = s[4];
	}
	if (s.Length > 5)
	{
	    shell = s[5];
	}
	Console.WriteLine(user);
	Console.WriteLine(pass);
    }
}

Output

foo
*

Explode method and limit

The PHP explode method with the limit parameter is not available in the .NET Framework, but a more complex method using Split with Join is possible. However, it would probably be easier to approach your problem a little differently, as with classes. This might also clarify your logic and error-checking.

str_split in PHP

I was interested to find that str_split doesn't split in the same way as does Split in Perl and C#. It splits based on character counts, not delimiters. To duplicate this functionality in C#, you could use ToCharArray() and a loop that counts characters. This would also give you more control, but would require more lines of code.

Summary

We saw that many aspects of explode are readily available in the C# language. However, this article emphasizes the fundamental differences between scripting and compiled languages. The C# source here has more lines of code, and much stricter error checking and exactness requirements. PHP, like Perl, is less strict and therefore shorter.