Try explode:
$myString = "9,admin@example.com,8";$myArray = explode(',', $myString);print_r($myArray);
Output :
Array( [0] => 9 [1] => admin@example.com [2] => 8)
$string = '9,admin@google.com,8';$array = explode(',', $string);
For more complicated situations, you may need to use preg_split.
preg_split
If that string comes from a csv file, I would use fgetcsv() (or str_getcsv() if you have PHP V5.3). That will allow you to parse quoted values correctly. If it is not a csv, explode() should be the best choice.
fgetcsv()
str_getcsv()
explode()