Ever wanted the perfect explode or split using the C++ std::string class? Where you can split a string based on a delimiter or separator and store the results in a vector? Here's an easy way to do it!

There were many options available online, but this seemed to be the best way to do it.

void StringExplode(string str, string separator, vector<string>* results){
    int found;
    found = str.find_first_of(separator);
    while(found != string::npos){
        if(found > 0){
            results->push_back(str.substr(0,found));
        }
        str = str.substr(found+1);
        found = str.find_first_of(separator);
    }
    if(str.length() > 0){
        results->push_back(str);
    }
}

Using the std::string function "find_first_of" we get the first instance of separator and store it into found integer.

We then check string::npos and compare with found, so that we make sure our while loop doesn't end until we have reached string::npos (the maximum position of a string index).

If we find an instance, we store it into a std::vector called "results".

Of course we need to update found integer. We also need a solution for the last area, which we push into our results after the while loop.

Here's how to use it:

vector<string> R;
string thisstring = "Inferno Development is a great programming community and tutorial site";
StringExplode(thisstring, " ", &R);
// vector R now contains each word!

Don't forget to include your headers:

#include <vector>
#include <string>

Hopefully this will help many of you with your short small programs dealing with strings. String Explode is a great technique similar to PHP's explode() function and Java's string.split() method.