Question

Hi I have simple split script and I am splitting a string on new line that has many new lines characters in it. Here is the code :

<?php
   $string = $argv[1]; // CASE 1: COMMAND LINE ARGUMENT.
   echo "String is : $string\n";
   //$string = 'Hello Shakir\nOkay Shakir\nHow are you ?'; //CASE2: SINGLE QUOTE.
   $string = "Hello Shakir\nOkay Shakir\nHow are you ?"; //CASE 3: DOUBLE QUOTE.
   $lines = array();
   $lines = split("\n", $string);

   foreach ( $lines as $line ) {
      echo "line is : $line\n";
      //var_dump($line); 
   } 
?>

It works fine when I use CASE 3 in the code, but it doesnt work when I use either CASE1 or CASE 2 (Only CASE 3 works fine). Can anybody please shed some light on this ?

This is how I run it on command line(linux machine) :

php my_script.php "Hello Shakir\nOkay Shakir\nHow are you ?"

In this case when I print $argv[1], it prints the entire string but it treats it same as CASE2 (with single quotes).

UPDATE :

Many of you have said what the cause of the issue is and not the answer to it. However, knowing the cause helped me fix it. So the answer is :

ANSWER :

Instead of using \n in double quotes (“\n”), use single quotes (‘\n’) :

$lines = split('\n', $string);

OR

$lines = explode('\n', $string);

However split counts ‘\’ also as a character and I dont know why. But explode is correct. Since split is deprecated I dont have done much research on this.

Thank you for all who let me know that split is deprecated.

Answer 1

CASE1 and CASE2 will not work for a simple reason, because \n is evaluated as a literal \n and not a newline character.

Only CASE3, with the double quotes, will evaluate \n as a newline.

Also, the function split() is deprecated. Try using explode() instead.