The first argument that explode takes is the delimiter (our dynamite) which is used to blow up the second argument, the original string. explode returns an array of string pieces from the original and they are numbered in order, starting from 0. Lets take a phone number in the form ###-###-#### and use a hyphen "-" as our dynamite to split the string into three separate chunks.
PHP CODE
$rawPhoneNumber = "800-555-5555";
$phoneChunks = explode("-", $rawPhoneNumber);
echo "Raw Phone Number = $rawPhoneNumber
";
echo "First chunk = $phoneChunks[0]
";
echo "Second chunk = $phoneChunks[1]
";
echo "Third Chunk chunk = $phoneChunks[2]";
DISPLAY
Raw Phone Number = 800-555-5555
First chunk = 800
Second chunk = 555
Third Chunk chunk = 5555
