php splitting large numbers (like explode)

Question

i need the functionality of php explode(), but without the separators.

for example, turning the variable "12345" into an array, holding each number seperately.

is this possible? i've already googled but only found explode(), which doesn't seem to work.

thanks!

Answer 1

with any string in php:

$foo="12345";
echo $foo[0];//1
echo $foo[1];//2
//etc

or (from the preg_split()) page in the manual

$str = 'string';
$chars = preg_split('//', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
print_r($chars);

EVEN BETTER:

$str = 'string';
$chars=str_split($str, 1)
print_r($chars);

benchmark of preg_split() vs str_split()

 function microtime_float()
{
    list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
    return ((float)$usec + (float)$sec);
}


$str = '12345';
$time_start = microtime_float();
for ($i = 0; $i <100000; $i++) {
$chars = preg_split('//', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
//$chars=str_split($str, 1);
}
$time_end = microtime_float();
$time = $time_end - $time_start;

echo "$time seconds\n";

results:

str_split  =0.69
preg_split =0.9