Supporting special characters with str_word_count()

Question

The str_word_count() function returns an array that holds all words in a string. It works great, except when using special characters. In this case, the php script receives the

Answer 1

What about just

print_r( str_word_count($_GET['q'],1) ); ?

You can also explode( ' ', $string ) on the string and count( $array );