<?php
$source = 'Aug 20, 2016 ';
//split into parts separated by all non-word characters
$result = preg_split('/\W+/',trim($source));
print_r($result);
Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'sodium.so' (tried: /usr/lib/php/8.3.5/modules/sodium.so (libsodium.so.23: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory), /usr/lib/php/8.3.5/modules/sodium.so.so (/usr/lib/php/8.3.5/modules/sodium.so.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)) in Unknown on line 0
Array
(
[0] => Aug
[1] => 20
[2] => 2016
)