// Example 1 $pizza = "piece1 piece2 piece3 piece4 piece5 piece6"; $pieces = explode(" ", $pizza); echo $pieces[0]; // piece1 echo $pieces[1]; // piece2 // Example 2 $data = "foo:*:1023:1000::/home/foo:/bin/sh"; list($user, $pass, $uid, $gid, $gecos, $home, $shell) = explode(":", $data); echo $user; // foo echo $pass; // *