Split Function

[diya]

Hello

I was trying this code to get the count for the inbox and searched and tried to learn and do it.

Iam not able to understand the split function used below.What is that "(1)" used for.

Code:

emailcount=split(inboxvar," ")(1)
emailcount=replace(emailcount ,"(","")
emailcount=replace(emailcount ,")","")

The result iam getting correctly but not able to understand the syntax also.
please explain as what is going on here