How can I split a string in PHP at the nth occurrence of a needle?

Question

There must be a fast and efficient way to split a (text) string at the "nth" occurrence of a needle, but I cannot find it. There is a fairly full set of functions

Answer 1

I've edited Galled's function to make it explode after every nth occurrences instead of just the first one.

function split2($string, $needle, $nth) {
  $max = strlen($string);
  $n = 0;
  $arr = array();

  //Loop trough each character
  for ($i = 0; $i < $max; $i++) {

    //if character == needle
    if ($string[$i] == $needle) {
      $n++;
      //Make a string for every n-th needle
      if ($n == $nth) {
        $arr[] = substr($string, $i-$nth, $i);
        $n=0; //reset n for next $nth
      }
      //Include last part of the string
      if(($i+$nth) >= $max) {
        $arr[] = substr($string, $i + 1, $max);
        break;
      }
    }
  }
  return $arr;
}