PHP array question

Content

I have a custom field for accounts (text area) that contains an array. I would like to report on these arrays. I created a report with a custom script in the process section

// Output array count
$var = $rows[0][0]->val;
$array = settype($var, "array");
$rows[0][1]->val = count($array);

The thing is... it doesn't count the array content and I've tried a few different things...
Hardcoding the array does seems to work so I'm not sure what I'm missing.

// Output array count
$array = array(1812,1811);
$rows[0][1]->val = count($array);

Version

18C