What is the purpose of the PHP split function?

The split() function in PHP has been deprecated in PHP version 5.3.0 and removed in PHP 7.0.0. Instead, it is recommended to use the preg_split() function for regular expression splitting.

The split() function is used to separate a string based on a specified delimiter and store the separated parts in an array. Its basic syntax is as follows:

split(separator, string, limit);

1. separator: a specified delimiter, which can be a string or a regular expression.
2. string: The string that needs to be divided.
3. Limit: an optional parameter that specifies the maximum number of array elements to return. By default, there is no limit on the number of elements returned.

For example, splitting a string based on spaces:

$str = "Hello World";
$arr = split(" ", $str);
print_r($arr);

The output is:

Array
(
    [0] => Hello
    [1] => World
)

However, since the split() function has been deprecated and removed, it is no longer recommended for use. It is suggested to use the preg_split() function instead, which provides more powerful and flexible regular expression splitting capabilities.