How to split a string where first delimiter is the very first whitespace, and second is a word in php?

Question

How do I split a string on two different positions with two different delimiters where the first is a whitespace, and that the whitespace can only be the very first occurence of it?.

The first split is after the very first word,
and the second split is based on a spesific word.

$string = 'BMW 220 2.0i 184Hk/270Nm TUNE Stage R 262Hk/425Nm';

I tried preg_split() with two words.

list($first,$middle,$last) = preg_split('/( ORG | TUNE )/',$string);

This apporach means that I would have to provide a spesific word after the first to make the split work.
So how can I make this work with a whitespace as the first delimiter, and only the very first occurence of it. Then split it at the defined word?

I did came up with this solution though, but not sure if that's the best approach?

list($first,$string)=explode(' ', $string, 2);
list($middle,$last) = explode(' TUNE ',$string);

$first = BMW
$middle => 220 2.0i 184Hk/270Nm
$last => Stage R 262Hk/425Nm

Answer 1

It doesn't have to be a split , does it?

preg_match('/^(\S+)\s+(.+)WORLD(.+)/', $string, $matches);

$matches[1] is now everything before the first space, $matches[2] everything between the space and "WORLD", and $matches[3] everything after it.