What are common pitfalls when using preg_split in PHP for splitting search terms?

Common pitfalls when using preg_split in PHP for splitting search terms include not properly escaping special characters in the regular expression pattern, not handling empty search terms, and not considering case sensitivity. To solve these issues, it's important to escape special characters using preg_quote, handle empty search terms with a conditional check, and use the 'i' flag for case-insensitive matching. 

// Example code snippet to split search terms using preg_split with proper handling of common pitfalls
$searchTerms = "apple, orange; banana -grape";
$termsArray = preg_split('/[\s,;]+/', $searchTerms, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
foreach ($termsArray as $term) {
    echo $term . "\n";
}

Keywords

preg_split PHP search terms regular expressions delimiter

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