if I have $val = 238;
I want to get an array @arr that looks like the following:
$arr[0] = 2;
$arr[1] = 3;
$arr[2] = 8;

or the same thing for a string
if I have $val = "hello";
I want:
$arr[0] = "h";
$arr[1] = "e";
$arr[2] = "l";
$arr[3] = "l";
$arr[4] = "o";

thanks