Description:
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Splitting a string into array of characters is not easy in PHP. It must be done using preg_split (slow) and with a lot of parameters:

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

Feature request: allow function explode() to split string into characters. Usage:

$chars = explode('', $str);

Rationale: there is counterpart function implode() which allows to use empty separator:

$str = explode('', $chars); // works