PHP sscanf() Function

The PHP sscanf() is an inbuilt function in PHP where the input string is parsed according to the specified or a particular pattern, along with comparing & matching any whitespace in between the format string & input string, which means, even the tab(\t) will be comparing & matches a single space character in between the format string & input string.

Syntax:

sscanf(string $input, string $format, mixed &...$vars): array|int|null

Parameters: This function accepts three parameters that are described below.

• $input: This is the input parameter that gets the string parsed.
• $format: This parameter gets the expected string by using the format like %d is for integer %f for floating point values.
• &$vars: This parameter specifies one more variable to store extracted values.

Return Values:  The sscanf() function returns an array when two parameters are passed. This function returns a parsed value in an array otherwise it will return the number of characters. If the error occurs, it will return "null".

Example 1: The following code demonstrates the sscanf() function.

<?php
    $str = "10,20";
    sscanf($str, "%d,%d", $num1, $num2);
    echo "Number 1: " . $num1 . "\n";
    echo "Number 2: " . $num2 ;
?>

Output:

Number 1: 10
Number 2: 20    

 Example 2: The following code demonstrates the sscanf() function.                          

<?php
    $input_string = "Amit Kumar";
    $first_name = "";
    $last_name = "";
  
    if (sscanf($input_string, "%s %s", $first_name, $last_name) === 2) 
    {
        echo "First name: " . $first_name . "\n";
        echo "Last name: " . $last_name . "\n";
    }
?>

Output:

First name: Amit
Last name: Kumar 

Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.sscanf.php