I have been using this with great success:

$array = preg_split("/\r\n|\n|\r/", $string);

With the last \r, thanks @LobsterMan):

You can use the explode function and use "\n" as the separator:

$your_array = explode("\n", $your_string_from_db);

For example, if you have the following code snippet:

$str = "My text1\nMy text2\nMy text3";
$arr = explode("\n", $str);
var_dump($arr);

You will get the following output:

array
  0 => string 'My text1' (length=8)
  1 => string 'My text2' (length=8)
  2 => string 'My text3' (length=8)

Note that you have to use a Note that you must use a double-quoted string so that \n will be interpreted as a newline character. (See the man page for more details.)