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local UTF8ToCharArray = function(str)
    local charArray = {};
    local iStart = 0;
    local strLen = str:len();
    
    local function bit(b)
        return 2 ^ (b - 1);
    end
 
    local function hasbit(w, b)
        return w % (b + b) >= b;
    end
    
    local checkMultiByte = function(i)
        if (iStart ~= 0) then
            charArray[#charArray + 1] = str:sub(iStart, i - 1);
            iStart = 0;
        end        
    end
    
    for i = 1, strLen do
        local b = str:byte(i);
        local multiStart = hasbit(b, bit(7)) and hasbit(b, bit(8));
        local multiTrail = not hasbit(b, bit(7)) and hasbit(b, bit(8));
 
        if (multiStart) then
            checkMultiByte(i);
            iStart = i;
            
        elseif (not multiTrail) then
            checkMultiByte(i);
            charArray[#charArray + 1] = str:sub(i, i);
        end
    end
    
    -- process if last character is multi-byte
    checkMultiByte(strLen + 1);
 
    return charArray;
end