In PHP, which is faster: preg_split or explode?

In a simple usage explode() is than faster, see: micro-optimization.com/explode-vs-preg_split ^{(link from web.archive.org)}

But preg_split has the advantage of supporting tabs (\t) and spaces with \s.

the \s metacharacter is used to find a whitespace character.

A whitespace character can be (http://php.net/manual/en/regexp.reference.escape.php):

space character (32 = 0x20)
tab character (9 = 0x09)
carriage return character (13 = 0x0D)
new line character (10 = 0x0A)
form feed character (12 = 0x0C)

In this case you should see the cost and benefit.

A tip, use array_filter for "delete" empty items in array:

Example:

$keyword = explode(' ', $_GET['search']); //or preg_split
print_r($keyword);

$keyword = array_filter($arr, 'empty');
print_r($keyword);

Note: RegExp Perfomance

Explode is faster, per PHP.net

Tip If you don't need the power of regular expressions, you can choose faster (albeit simpler) alternatives like explode() or str_split().

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