Here's a function to count number of strings in a string. It can be used as a simple utf8-enabled count_chars (but limited to a single mode)...
<?php
function utf8_count_strings($stringChar)
{
$num = -1;
$lenStringChar = strlen($stringChar);
for ($lastPosition = 0;
$lastPosition !== false;
$lastPosition = strpos($textSnippet, $stringChar, $lastPosition + $lenStringChar))
{
$num++;
}
return $num;
}
?>