Extending m.timmermans's solution, you can use the following code as a search expression parser:
<?php
$search_expression = "apple bear \"Tom Cruise\" or 'Mickey Mouse' another word";
$words = preg_split("/[\s,]*\\\"([^\\\"]+)\\\"[\s,]*|" . "[\s,]*'([^']+)'[\s,]*|" . "[\s,]+/", $search_expression, 0, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
print_r($words);
?>
The result will be:
Array
(
[0] => apple
[1] => bear
[2] => Tom Cruise
[3] => or
[4] => Mickey Mouse
[5] => another
[6] => word
)
1. Accepted delimiters: white spaces (space, tab, new line etc.) and commas.
2. You can use either simple (') or double (") quotes for expressions which contains more than one word.
