What is the significance of using preg_split with the regular expression '//u' in PHP when dealing with special characters like umlauts?

When dealing with special characters like umlauts in PHP, it is important to use the regular expression '//u' with preg_split. This ensures that the string is treated as UTF-8 encoded, allowing proper handling of multibyte characters like umlauts. Without this, special characters may be split incorrectly, leading to unexpected results. 

$string = "Möglichkeit zu überprüfen";
$words = preg_split('//u', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
print_r($words);

Keywords

preg_split regular expression //u special characters umlauts

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