To clarify the "limit" parameter and the PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE option,
<?php
$preg_split('(/ /)', '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8', 4 ,PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE );
?>
returns:
('1', ' ', '2', ' ' , '3', ' ', '4 5 6 7 8')
So you actually get 7 array items not 4