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String Functions
PHP Manual

# sscanf

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.1, PHP 5)

sscanf — Parses input from a string according to a format

### Description

mixed sscanf ( string `$str` , string `$format` [, mixed `&$...` ] )

The function sscanf() is the input analog of printf(). sscanf() reads from the string `str` 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.

### Parameters

`str`

  The input string being parsed.

`format`

  The interpreted format for `str`, which is described in the documentation for sprintf() with following differences:

  - Function is not locale-aware.
  - 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.
`...`

  Optionally pass in variables by reference that will contain the parsed values.

### Return 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 `str`, -1 will be returned.

### Examples

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";
?>`

### See Also

- fscanf() - Parses input from a file according to a format
- printf() - Output a formatted string
- sprintf() - Return a formatted string

sprintf
str_getcsv
String Functions
PHP Manual