Parse a string into separate words

Parse a string into separate words (array output).

function parser($str, $char = ' ')
{
    $str = trim($str);
    $str = $str . $char;
    $len = strlen($str);
    $words = array();
    $w = '';
    $c = 0;
    for ($i = 0; $i < $len; $i++)
        if ($str[$i] != $char)
            $w = $w . $str[$i];
        else
            if (($w != $char) and ($w != '')) {
                $words[$c] = $w;
                $c++;
                $w = '';
            }
    return $words;
}
 
$x = parser('hello world!');
print_r($x);