In terms of performance, which function is faster and why: explode() or preg_split()?

When comparing the performance of explode() and preg_split(), explode() is generally faster because it is a simpler function that only splits a string based on a single delimiter, while preg_split() uses regular expressions which can be more computationally expensive. If you only need to split a string based on a single delimiter, it is recommended to use explode() for better performance.

// Using explode() for faster performance
$string = "apple,banana,cherry";
$delimiter = ",";
$parts = explode($delimiter, $string);
print_r($parts);