diff --git a/acceptance_tests/split-printer.sh b/acceptance_tests/split-printer.sh
index 71170422725..a8e81a91b62 100755
--- a/acceptance_tests/split-printer.sh
+++ b/acceptance_tests/split-printer.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,31 @@ EOM
   assertEquals "$expectedDoc2" "$doc2"
 }
 
+testSplitFromFile() {
+  cat >test.yml <<EOL
+a: test_doc1
+--- 
+a: test_doc2
+EOL
+
+cat >test_splitExp.yml <<EOL
+.a
+EOL
+
+  ./yq test.yml --split-exp-file test_splitExp.yml
+
+  doc1=$(cat test_doc1.yml)
+  
+  assertEquals "a: test_doc1" "$doc1"
+
+  doc2=$(cat test_doc2.yml)
+  read -r -d '' expectedDoc2 << EOM
+---
+a: test_doc2
+EOM
+  assertEquals "$expectedDoc2" "$doc2"
+}
+
 testBasicSplitWithNameEvalAll() {
   cat >test.yml <<EOL
 a: test_doc1
diff --git a/cmd/constant.go b/cmd/constant.go
index 3928d3c8cdb..4594f08f270 100644
--- a/cmd/constant.go
+++ b/cmd/constant.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ var prettyPrint = false
 var frontMatter = ""
 
 var splitFileExp = ""
+var splitFileExpFile = ""
 
 var completedSuccessfully = false
 
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index a4aaba25353..0f5a54a240c 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ yq -P sample.json
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&leadingContentPreProcessing, "header-preprocess", "", true, "Slurp any header comments and separators before processing expression.")
 
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&splitFileExp, "split-exp", "s", "", "print each result (or doc) into a file named (exp). [exp] argument must return a string. You can use $index in the expression as the result counter.")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&splitFileExpFile, "split-exp-file", "", "", "Use a file to specify the split-exp expression.")
 
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringVarP(&expressionFile, "from-file", "", "", "Load expression from specified file.")
 
diff --git a/cmd/utils.go b/cmd/utils.go
index 1a3086b87cb..69aeec18008 100644
--- a/cmd/utils.go
+++ b/cmd/utils.go
@@ -24,6 +24,14 @@ func initCommand(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (string, []string, error) {
 		return "", nil, err
 	}
 
+	if splitFileExpFile != "" {
+		splitExpressionBytes, err := os.ReadFile(splitFileExpFile)
+		if err != nil {
+			return "", nil, err
+		}
+		splitFileExp = string(splitExpressionBytes)
+	}
+
 	// backwards compatibility
 	if outputToJSON {
 		outputFormat = "json"