What potential pitfalls should be avoided when trying to split a number into its constituent parts using PHP?

When splitting a number into its constituent parts using PHP, one potential pitfall to avoid is assuming the number is always positive. If the number is negative, the parts will be different than expected. To solve this, you can use the abs() function to get the absolute value of the number before splitting it.

$number = -123;
$absNumber = abs($number);
$parts = str_split($absNumber);
print_r($parts);