[Chapter 21] Reference: String.split()
Author: David Flanagan
Date: Fri Aug 29 11:20:05 1997

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| Chapter 21 JavaScript Reference |

# String.split() Method

## Name

String.split() Method---break a string into an array of strings

## Availability

Navigator 3.0

## Synopsis

    string.split();
    string.split(delimiter);

### Arguments

`delimiter`

  The character or string at which the `string` will be split. If no delimiter is specified, then the returned array has only one element, the string itself.

### Returns

An array of strings, created by splitting `string` into substrings, at `delimiter` boundaries.

## Description

The `split()` method creates and returns an array of substrings of the specified string. These substrings are created by splitting the string at every occurrence of the specified `delimiter`. The delimiter character or characters are not part of the returned substrings.

If no `delimiter` is specified, then the string is not split at all, and the returned array contains only a single, unbroken string element.

Unfortunately, there is no way to specify more than one delimiter string or character to use. For example, there is no way to tell it to treat any of the space, newline and tab characters as delimiters.

Note that the `String.split()` method is the inverse of the `Array.join()` method.

## Example

The `split()` method is most useful when you are working with highly structured strings. For example:

    s = "1,2,3,4,5"
    a = s.split(",");

Another common use of the `split()` method is to parse commands and similar strings by breaking them down into words delimited by spaces:

    words = sentence.split(' ');

## See Also

"Array.join()", "String"

String.small() |  | String.strike()