(PHP 4 >= 4.0.1, PHP 5, PHP 7)
sscanf — Parses input from a string according to a format
sscanf ( string $string , string $format , mixed &...$vars ) : array|int|null
The function sscanf() is the input analog of printf(). sscanf() reads from the string string and interprets it according to the specified format, which is described in the documentation for sprintf().
Any whitespace in the format string matches any whitespace in the input string. This means that even a tab \t in the format string can match a single space character in the input string.
string
The input string being parsed.
format
The interpreted format for string, which is described in the documentation for sprintf() with following differences:
F, g, G and b are not supported. D stands for decimal number. i stands for integer with base detection. n stands for number of characters processed so far. s stops reading at any whitespace character. vars
Optionally pass in variables by reference that will contain the parsed values.
If only two parameters were passed to this function, the values parsed will be returned as an array. Otherwise, if optional parameters are passed, the function will return the number of assigned values. The optional parameters must be passed by reference.
If there are more substrings expected in the format than there are available within string, null will be returned.
Example #1 sscanf() Example
<?php
// getting the serial number
list($serial) = sscanf("SN/2350001", "SN/%d");
// and the date of manufacturing
$mandate = "January 01 2000";
list($month, $day, $year) = sscanf($mandate, "%s %d %d");
echo "Item $serial was manufactured on: $year-" . substr($month, 0, 3) . "-$day\n";
?> If optional parameters are passed, the function will return the number of assigned values.
Example #2 sscanf() - using optional parameters
<?php // get author info and generate DocBook entry $auth = "24\tLewis Carroll"; $n = sscanf($auth, "%d\t%s %s", $id, $first, $last); echo "<author id='$id'> <firstname>$first</firstname> <surname>$last</surname> </author>\n"; ?>
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https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.sscanf.php