How to cast string into array with only characters in double quotes - php

Question

I need to cast $string = ("one","two","three,subthree","four") into PHP array like.
$data[0] => "one",
$data[1] => "two",
$data[2] => "three,subthree",
$data[3] => "four"
The issue is that the delimiter in 3rd variable contains comma so explode function is making the string into 5 variables instead of 4.

Answer 1

You can convert the string to JSON string and then decode like this
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four")';
$string = str_replace(['(', ')'], ['[', ']'], $string);
$array = json_decode($string, true);
print_r($array);
Working demo.
Edit:
If you have possibilities to have brackets [( or )] in string, you can trim by brackets [( or )] and explode by the delimiter ",". Example:
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four")';
$string = trim($string, ' ()');
$array = explode('","', $string);
print_r($array);
Another way is to use preg_match_all() by the patter ~"([^"])+"~
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four")';
preg_match_all('~"([^"]+)"~', $string, $array);
print_r($array[0]);
Regex explanation:
" matches a double quote
([^"]+) capturing group
[^"] any characters except double quote
+ one or more occurrence
" matches a double quote

Answer 2

Here's a shorter version to do that:
$string = '("one", "two,three")';
preg_match_all('/"([^"]+)"/', $string, $string);
echo "<pre>";
var_dump($string[1]);
Output:
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(3) "one"
[1]=>
string(9) "two,three"
}

Answer 3

You can use substr to remove the first (" and ") and then use explode:
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four")';
$s = substr($string,2,-2);
// now $s is: one","two","three,subthree","four
print_r(explode('","', $s));
Which outputs:
(
[0] => one
[1] => two
[2] => three,subthree
[3] => four
)
Live example: 3v4l

Answer 4

You can use explode with trim
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four")';
print_r(explode('","',trim($string,'"()')));
Working example : https://3v4l.org/4ZERb

Answer 5

A simple way which does the processing of quotes for you is to use str_getcsv() (after removing the start and end brackets)...
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four")';
$string = substr($string, 1, -1);
print_r(str_getcsv($string));
gives
Array
(
[0] => one
[1] => two
[2] => three,subthree
[3] => four
)
Main thing is that it will also work with...
$string = '("one","two","three,subthree","four",5)';
and output
Array
(
[0] => one
[1] => two
[2] => three,subthree
[3] => four
[4] => 5
)