In what situations would it be more efficient to use functions like explode() or preg_match() in PHP for data manipulation?

When working with strings that need to be split into an array based on a delimiter or matched against a specific pattern, using functions like explode() or preg_match() in PHP can be more efficient than manually manipulating the data. These functions provide built-in functionality for common string operations, saving time and reducing the likelihood of errors in the code.

// Example using explode() to split a string into an array based on a delimiter
$string = "apple,banana,orange";
$array = explode(",", $string);
print_r($array);

// Example using preg_match() to extract a specific pattern from a string
$string = "Hello, my email is example@email.com";
preg_match("/[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}/", $string, $matches);
$email = $matches[0];
echo $email;