When dealing with complex string separations, what alternative functions can be used instead of explode() in PHP?
When dealing with complex string separations, an alternative function to explode() in PHP is preg_split(). This function allows for more advanced string splitting using regular expressions, making it ideal for cases where the delimiter is not a simple character but a pattern.
$string = "apple,banana;cherry.orange";
$delimiter = "/[,;]/";
$parts = preg_split($delimiter, $string);
print_r($parts);