How do i display a specific character in php?

Question

After much banging-head-on-table, I have a bit better understanding of the issue that I wanted to post for anyone else who may have had this issue.

Nội dung chính Show

Edit (4 years later):
Description
Return Values
How do I print a specific character from a string in PHP?
How do I allow special characters in PHP?
How do I check if a string contains a specific character in PHP?
How can I get only the first letter in PHP?

While the UTF-8 character set will display special characters on the client, the server, on the other hand, may not be so accomodating and would print special characters such as à and è as � and �.

To make sure your server will print them correctly, use the ISO-8859-1 charset:




    
        
        Untitled Document

This will print correctly: àè

Edit (4 years later):

I have a little better understanding now. The reason this works is that the client (browser) is being told, through the response header(), to expect an ISO-8859-1 text/html file. (As others have mentioned, you can also do this by updating your .ini or .htaccess files.) Then, once the browser begins to parse that given file into the DOM, the output will obey any rule but keep your ISO characters intact.

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In this article, we will get the position of the character in the given string in PHP. String is a set of characters. We will get the position of the character in a string by using strpos() function.

Syntax:

strpos(string, character, start_pos)

Parameters:

string (mandatory): This parameter refers to the original string in which we need to search the occurrence of the required string.
character (mandatory): This parameter refers to the string that we need to search.
start_pos (optional): Refers to the position of the string from where the search must begin.

Return Value: It returns the index position of the character.

Example 1: PHP Program to get the position of particular character in the given string.

PHP

$str1 = "Hello geeks for geeks";

echo strpos($str1, 'f');

echo "\n";

echo strpos($str1, 'H');

echo "\n";

echo strpos($str1, 'l');

echo "\n";

echo strpos($str1, ' ');

?>

Example 2:

`PHP`

$str1 = "Hello geeks for geeks";

echo strpos($str1, 'f', 5);

echo "\n";

echo strpos($str1, 'H', 8);

?>

 
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
substr — Return part of a string
Description
substr(string $string, int $offset, ?int $length = null): string
Parameters
 string The input string. 
 offset If offset is non-negative, the returned string will start at the offset'th position in string, counting from zero. For instance, in the string 'abcdef', the character at position 0 is 'a', the character at position 2 is 'c', and so forth. 
 If offset is negative, the returned string will start at the
offset'th character from the end of string. 
 If string is less than offset characters long, an empty string will be returned. 
Example #1 Using a negative offset

$rest = substr("abcdef", -1);    // returns "f"
$rest = substr("abcdef", -2);    // returns "ef"
$rest = substr("abcdef", -3, 1); // returns "d"
?>

 length If length is given and is positive, the string returned will contain at most length characters beginning from offset (depending on the length of string). 
 If length is given and is
negative, then that many characters will be omitted from the end of string (after the start position has been calculated when a offset is negative). If offset denotes the position of this truncation or beyond, an empty string will be returned. 
 If length is given and is 0, an empty string will be returned. 
 If length is omitted or null, the substring starting from offset until the end of the string will be returned. 
Example #2 Using a negative length

$rest = substr("abcdef", 0, -1);  // returns "abcde"
$rest = substr("abcdef", 2, -1);  // returns "cde"
$rest = substr("abcdef", 4, -4);  // returns ""; prior to PHP 8.0.0, false was returned
$rest = substr("abcdef", -3, -1); // returns "de"
?>

Return Values
 Returns the extracted part of string, or an empty string. 
Changelog
Version Description
8.0.0
 length is nullable now. When length is explicitly set to null, the function returns a substring finishing at the end of the string, when it previously returned an empty string.
8.0.0
 The function returns an empty string where it previously returned false.
Examples
Example #3 Basic substr() usage

echo substr('abcdef', 1);     // bcdef
echo substr("abcdef", 1, null); // bcdef; prior to PHP 8.0.0, empty string was returned
echo substr('abcdef', 1, 3);  // bcd
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 4);  // abcd
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 8);  // abcdef
echo substr('abcdef', -1, 1); // f
// Accessing single characters in a string
// can also be achieved using "square brackets"
$string = 'abcdef';
echo $string[0];                 // a
echo $string[3];                 // d
echo $string[strlen($string)-1]; // f?>
Example #4 substr() casting behaviour

class apple {
    public function __toString() {
        return "green";
    }
}
echo
"1) ".var_export(substr("pear", 0, 2), true).PHP_EOL;
echo "2) ".var_export(substr(54321, 0, 2), true).PHP_EOL;
echo "3) ".var_export(substr(new apple(), 0, 2), true).PHP_EOL;
echo "4) ".var_export(substr(true, 0, 1), true).PHP_EOL;
echo "5) ".var_export(substr(false, 0, 1), true).PHP_EOL;
echo "6) ".var_export(substr("", 0, 1), true).PHP_EOL;
echo "7) ".var_export(substr(1.2e3, 0, 4), true).PHP_EOL;
?>
The above example will output:
1) 'pe'
2) '54'
3) 'gr'
4) '1'
5) ''
6) ''
7) '1200'
Example #5 Invalid Character
Range
 If an invalid character range is requested, substr() returns an empty string as of PHP 8.0.0; previously, false was returned instead. 

var_dump(substr('a', 2));
?>

Output of the above example in PHP 8:
Output of the above example in PHP 7:
See Also
strrchr() - Find the last occurrence of a character in a string
substr_replace() - Replace text within a portion of a string
preg_match() - Perform a
regular expression match
trim() - Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of a string
mb_substr() - Get part of string
wordwrap() - Wraps a string to a given number of characters
String access and modification by character
 Andreas Bur
(andreas dot buro at gmail dot com) ¶
13 years ago

For getting a substring of UTF-8 characters, I highly recommend mb_substr
        $utf8string = "cakeæøå";
        echo 
substr($utf8string,0,5);
        // output cake#
        echo mb_substr($utf8string,0,5,'UTF-8');
        //output cakeæ
?>
 biohazard dot ge at gmail dot com ¶
9
years ago




may be by following functions will be easier to extract the needed sub parts from a string:
after ('@', '');
//returns 'online.ge'
//from the first occurrence of '@'before ('@', '');
//returns 'biohazard'
//from the first occurrence of '@'between ('@', '.', '');
//returns 'online'
//from the first occurrence of '@'after_last ('[', 'sin[90]*cos[180]');
//returns '180]'
//from the last occurrence of '['before_last ('[', 'sin[90]*cos[180]');
//returns 'sin[90]*cos['
//from the last occurrence of '['between_last ('[', ']', 'sin[90]*cos[180]');
//returns '180'
//from the last occurrence of '['
?>

here comes the source:
function after ($this, $inthat)
    {
        if (!is_bool(strpos($inthat, $this)))
        return substr($inthat, strpos($inthat,$this)+strlen($this));
    };
    function 
after_last ($this, $inthat)
    {
        if (!is_bool(strrevpos($inthat, $this)))
        return substr($inthat, strrevpos($inthat, $this)+strlen($this));
    };    function before ($this, $inthat)
    {
        return substr($inthat, 0, strpos($inthat, $this));
    };    function before_last ($this, $inthat)
    {
        return substr($inthat, 0, strrevpos($inthat, $this));
    };    function between ($this, $that, $inthat)
    {
        return before ($that, after($this, $inthat));
    };    function between_last ($this, $that, $inthat)
    {
     return after_last($this, before_last($that, $inthat));
    };// use strrevpos function in case your php version does not include it
function strrevpos($instr, $needle)
{
    $rev_pos = strpos (strrev($instr), strrev($needle));
    if ($rev_pos===false) return false;
    else return strlen($instr) - $rev_pos - strlen($needle);
};
?>
 bleakwind at msn dot com ¶
17 years ago

This returns the portion of str specified by the start and length parameters..
It can performs multi-byte safe on number of characters. like mb_strcut() ...
Note:
1.Use it like this bite_str(string str, int start, int length [,byte of on string]);
2.First character's position is 0. Second character position is 1, and so on...
3.$byte is one character length of your encoding, For example: utf-8 is "3", gb2312 and big5 is "2"...you can use the function strlen() get it... 
Enjoy it :) ...
--- Bleakwind
QQ:940641
http://www.weaverdream.com
PS:I'm sorry my english is too poor... :( 
// String intercept By Bleakwind
// utf-8:$byte=3 | gb2312:$byte=2 | big5:$byte=2
function bite_str($string, $start, $len, $byte=3)
{
    $str     = "";
    $count   = 0;
    $str_len = strlen($string);
    for ($i=0; $i<$str_len; $i++) {
        if (($count+1-$start)>$len) {
            $str  .= "...";
            break;
        } elseif ((ord(substr($string,$i,1)) <= 128) && ($count < $start)) {
            $count++;
        } elseif ((ord(substr($string,$i,1)) > 128) && ($count < $start)) {
            $count = $count+2;
            $i     = $i+$byte-1;
        } elseif ((ord(substr($string,$i,1)) <= 128) && ($count >= $start)) {
            $str  .= substr($string,$i,1);
            $count++;
        } elseif ((ord(substr($string,$i,1)) > 128) && ($count >= $start)) {
            $str  .= substr($string,$i,$byte);
            $count = $count+2;
            $i     = $i+$byte-1;
        }
    }
    return $str;
}// Test
$str = "123456???ֽ?123456?ַ???123456??ȡ????";
for($i=0;$i<30;$i++){
    echo "
".bite_str($str,$i,20);    
}
?>

 greg at apparel dot com ¶
8 years ago

Coming to PHP from classic ASP I am used to the Left() and Right() functions built into ASP so I did a quick PHPversion. hope these help someone else making the switch
function left($str, $length) {
    return substr($str, 0, $length);
}
function right($str, $length) {
    return substr($str, -$length);
}

 pugazhenthi
k ¶
9 years ago

### SUB STRING  BY WORD USING substr() and strpos()  #####
### THIS SCRIPT WILL RETURN PART OF STRING  WITHOUT WORD BREAK ###
$description = ‘your description here your description here your description here your description here your description here your description here your description hereyour description here your description here’  // your description here .$no_letter = 30 ;if(strlen($desctiption) > 30 )
{
     echo substr($description,0,strpos($description,’ ‘,30));             //strpos to find ‘ ‘ after 30 characters.
}
else {
     echo $description;
}?>
 nikolai dot wuestemann at t-online dot de ¶
11 years ago

If you want to have a string BETWEEN two strings, just use this function:

function get_between($input, $start, $end)

{

  $substr = substr($input, strlen($start)+strpos($input, $start), (strlen($input) - strpos($input, $end))*(-1));

  return $substr;

}
//Example:
$string = "123456789";

$a = "12";

$b = "9";

echo 
get_between($string, $a, $b);
//Output:

//345678

?>
 Petez ¶
15 years ago

I wanted to work out the fastest way to get the first few characters from a string, so I ran the following experiment to compare substr, direct string access and strstr:
/* substr access */
beginTimer();
for ($i = 0; $i < 1500000; $i++){
    $opening = substr($string,0,11);
    if ($opening == 'Lorem ipsum'){
        true;
    }else{
        false;
    }
}
$endtime1 = endTimer();/* direct access */
beginTimer();
for ($i = 0; $i < 1500000; $i++){
    if ($string[0] == 'L' && $string[1] == 'o' && $string[2] == 'r' && $string[3] == 'e' && $string[4] == 'm' && $string[5] == ' ' && $string[6] == 'i' && $string[7] == 'p' && $string[8] == 's' && $string[9] == 'u' && $string[10] == 'm'){
        true;
    }else{
        false;
    }
}
$endtime2 = endTimer();/* strstr access */
beginTimer();
for ($i = 0; $i < 1500000; $i++){
    $opening = strstr($string,'Lorem ipsum');
    if ($opening == true){
        true;
    }else{
        false;
    }
}
$endtime3 = endTimer();
echo 
$endtime1."\r\n".$endtime2."\r\n".$endtime3;
?>

The string was 6 paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum, and I was trying match the first two words. The experiment was run 3 times and averaged. The results were:
(substr) 3.24
(direct access) 11.49
(strstr) 4.96
(With standard deviations 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04)
THEREFORE substr is the fastest of the three methods for getting the first few letters of a string.
 gkhelloworld at gmail dot
com ¶
13 years ago

Shortens the filename and its expansion has seen.

$file = "Hellothisfilehasmorethan30charactersandthisfayl.exe";

function 
funclongwords($file)

{

if (strlen($file) > 30)

{

$vartypesf = strrchr($file,".");

$vartypesf_len = strlen($vartypesf);

$word_l_w = substr($file,0,15);

$word_r_w = substr($file,-15);

$word_r_a = substr($word_r_w,0,-$vartypesf_len);

return $word_l_w."...".$word_r_a.$vartypesf;

}

else

return $file;

}

// RETURN: Hellothisfileha...andthisfayl.exe

?>
 kaysar in ymail in com ¶
13 years ago


Drop extensions of a file (even from a file location string)
$filename 
= "c:/some dir/abc defg. hi.jklmn";echo substr($filename, 0, (strlen ($filename)) - (strlen (strrchr($filename,'.'))));?>

output: c:/some dir/abc defg. hi
Hope it may help somebody like me.. (^_^)
 Anonymous ¶
4 years ago

Be aware of a slight inconsistency between substr and mb_substr
mb_substr("", 4);      returns empty string
substr("", 4);              returns boolean false
tested in PHP 7.1.11 (Fedora 26) and PHP 5.4.16 (CentOS 7.4)


link ¶
13 years ago

I created some functions for entity-safe splitting+lengthcounting:
function strlen_entities($text)
{
    preg_match_all(
        '/((?:&(?:#[0-9]{2,}|[a-z]{2,});)|(?:[^&])|'.         
        '(?:&(?!\w;)))s',$text,$textarray);
    return count($textarray[0]);
}  
function substr_entities($text,$start,$limit=0)
{
    $return = '';
    preg_match_all(
        '/((?:&(?:#[0-9]{2,}|[a-z]{2,});)|(?:[^&])|'.         
        '(?:&(?!\w;)))s',$text,$textarray);
    $textarray = $textarray[0];
    $numchars = count($textarray)-1;
    if ($start>=$numchars)
        return false;
    if ($start<0)
    {
        $start = ($numchars)+$start+1;
    }
    if ($start>=0)
    {
        if ($limit==0)
        {
            $end=$numchars;
        }
        elseif ($limit>0)
        {
            $end = $start+($limit-1);
        }
        else
        {
            $end = ($numchars)+$limit;
        }
        for (
$i=$start;$i<=$end;$i++)
        {
            $return .= $textarray[$i];
        }
        return $return;
    }
}
?>
 pheagey at gmail dot com ¶
10 years ago

Using a 0 as the last parameter for substr().

As per examples

= substr($var, 4); ?>



works no problem. However

= substr($var, 4, 0); ?>



will get you nothing. Just a quick heads up




 Cristianlf ¶
11 years ago

I needed a function like lpad from oracle, or right from SQL

 then I use this code :

function right($string,$chars)

{

    $vright = substr($string, strlen($string)-$chars,$chars);

    return $vright;
   
}

    echo 
right('0r0j4152',4);

?>



Result:

 4152

------------------------------------------------

This function is really simple, I just wanted to share, maybe helps someone out there.

regards,
 fanfatal at
fanfatal dot pl ¶
17 years ago

Hmm ... this is a script I wrote, whitch is very similar to substr, but it isn't takes html and bbcode for counting and it takes portion of string and show avoided (html & bbcode) tags too ;]

Specially usefull for show part of serach result included html and bbcode tags

/**

 * string csubstr ( string string, int start [, int length] )

 *

 * @author FanFataL

 * @param string string

 * @param int start

 * @param [int length]

 * @return string

 */

function csubstr($string, $start, $length=false) {

    $pattern = '/(\[\w+[^\]]*?\]|\[\/\w+\]|<\w+[^>]*?>|<\/\w+>)/i';

    $clean = preg_replace($pattern, chr(1), $string);

    if(!$length)

        $str = substr($clean, $start);

    else {

        $str = substr($clean, $start, $length);

        $str = substr($clean, $start, $length + substr_count($str, chr(1)));

    }

    $pattern = str_replace(chr(1),'(.*?)',preg_quote($str));

    if(preg_match('/'.$pattern.'/is', $string, $matched))

        return $matched[0];

    return $string;

}
?>



Using this is similar to simple substr.

Greatings ;]

...

 fatihmertdogancan at hotmail dot com ¶
8 years
ago

[English]
I created python similar accesing list or string with php substr & strrev functions.
Use: str($string,$pattern)
About the python pattern,
http://docs.python.org/release/1.5.1p1/tut/strings.html
http://effbot.org/zone/python-list.htm
About of pattern structures
[start:stop:step]
Example,
$s = "fatihmertdogancan";
echo str($s,"1:9:-2");
echo "
";
echo str($s,"1:-3:-2");
echo "
";
echo str($s,"1:-11:-5");
echo "
";
echo str($s,"1:9:4");
?>

Output,
thetoacn
eht
aom
htan
This is function phpfiddle link: http://phpfiddle.org/main/code/e82-y5d
or source;
    function str($str,$pattern){
        //[start:stop:step]
        //pattern ->            ([-]?[0-9]*|\s):([-]?[0-9]*|\s):([-]?[0-9]*|\s)
        preg_match("/([-]?[0-9]*|\s?):([-]?[0-9]*|\s?):?([-]?[0-9]*|\s?)/", $pattern, $yakala);
        $start = $yakala[1];
        $stop = $yakala[2];
        $step = $yakala[3];
                if(empty(
$start) && empty($stop) && $step == "-1"){//istisna durum
            return strrev($str);
        }else if(empty($start) && empty($stop) && isset($step)){//istisna durum
            $rev = "";
            $yeni = "";
            if($step[0] == "-" && $stop != "-1"){$rev = "VAR";}
            $atla = abs($step);
            for($i = 0; $i <= strlen($str); $i++){
                $offset = $i*$atla;
                if(isset($str[$offset])){
                    $yeni = $yeni.$str[$offset];
                }
            }
            if($rev != "VAR"){
                return substr($yeni,0,strlen($str)-1);
                //"hepsi boş, step dolu o da +";
            }else{
                return strrev(substr($yeni,0,strlen($str)-1));
                //"hepsi boş, step dolu o da -";
            }
        }                if(empty($start) && empty($stop) && empty($step)){
            return $str;
            //"hepsi boş";
        }else if(empty($start)){
            if(isset($stop) && empty($step)){
                $rev = "";
                if($stop[0] == "-"){$rev = "VAR";}
                if($rev != "VAR"){
                    return substr($str,0,$stop);
                    //"start ve step boş, stop dolu"
                }else{
                    return strrev(substr($str,0,$stop));
                    //"start ve step boş, stop -1";
                }
            }else if(isset($stop) && isset($step)){
                $rev = "";
                if($stop[0] == "-"){$rev = "VAR";}
                $yeni = "";
                if($step == 1){
                    if($rev != "VAR"){
                        return $str;
                        //"start boş, stop ve step dolu, step 1";
                    }else{
                        return strrev(substr($str,0,abs($stop))); //abs -> mutlak değer (-5 = 5)
                        //"start boş, stop -, step dolu, step 1";
                    }
                }else{
                    $atla = abs($step);
                    for($i = 0; $i <= strlen($str); $i++){
                        $offset = $i*$atla;
                        if(isset($str[$offset])){
                            $yeni = $yeni.$str[$offset];
                        }
                    }
                    if($rev != "VAR"){
                        return substr($yeni,0,$stop);
                        //"start boş, step ve stop dolu";
                    }else{
                        return strrev(substr($yeni,0,abs($stop)));
                        //"start boş, step ve stop -";
                    }
                }
            }
        //start boş değilse
        }else if(!empty($start)){
            if(isset($stop) && empty($step)){
                $rev = "";
                if($stop[0] == "-"){$rev = "VAR";}
                if($rev != "VAR"){
                    return substr($str,$start,$stop);
                    //return "step boş, start ve stop dolu";
                }else{
                    return strrev(substr($str,0,abs($stop)));
                    //"step boş, start ve stop dolu, stop -";
                }
            }else if(isset($stop) && isset($step)){//hepsi dolu
                $rev = "";
                if($stop[0] == "-"){$rev = "VAR";}
                $yeni = "";
                if($step == 1){
                    if($rev != "VAR"){
                        return substr($str,$start,$stop);
                        //"hepsi dolu, step 1";
                    }else{
                        return substr($str,$start,abs($stop));
                        //"hepsi dolu, step 1, stop -";
                    }
                }else{
                    if($stop[0] == "-"){$rev = "VAR";}
                    $atla = abs($step);
                    for($i = 0; $i <= strlen($str); $i++){
                        $offset = $i*$atla;
                        if(isset($str[$offset])){
                            $yeni = $yeni.$str[$offset];
                        }
                    }
                    if($rev != "VAR"){
                        return substr($yeni,$start,$stop);
                        //"hepsi dolu";
                    }else{
                        return strrev(substr($yeni,$start,abs($stop)));
                        //"hepsi dolu, stop -";
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
?>

Good works..
 egingell at sisna dot com ¶
15 years ago

/**
 * string substrpos(string $str, mixed $start [[, mixed $end], boolean $ignore_case])
 *
 * If $start is a string, substrpos will return the string from the position of the first occuring $start to $end
 *
 * If $end is a string, substrpos will return the string from $start to the position of the first occuring $end
 *
 * If the first character in (string) $start or (string) $end is '-', the last occuring string will be used.
 *
 * If $ignore_case is true, substrpos will not care about the case.
 * If $ignore_case is false (or anything that is not (boolean) true, the function will be case sensitive.
 *        Both of the above: only applies if either $start or $end are strings.
 *
 * echo substrpos('This is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it.', 5, '5');
 *        // Prints 'is a string with 01234';
 *
 * echo substrpos('This is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it.', '5', 5);
 *        // Prints '56789'
 *
 * echo substrpos('This is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it and two strings.', -60, '-string')
 *        // Prints 's is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it and two '
 *
 * echo substrpos('This is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it and two strings.', -60, '-STRING', true)
 *        // Prints 's is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it and two '
 *
 * echo substrpos('This is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it and two strings.', -60, '-STRING', false)
 *        // Prints 's is a string with 0123456789 numbers in it and two strings.'
 *
 * Warnings:
 *        Since $start and $end both take either a string or an integer:
 *            If the character or string you are searching $str for is a number, pass it as a quoted string.
 *        If $end is (integer) 0, an empty string will be returned.
 *        Since this function takes negative strings ('-search_string'):
 *            If the string your using in $start or $end is a '-' or begins with a '-' escape it with a '\'.
 *            This only applies to the *first* character of $start or $end.
 */
// Define stripos() if not defined (PHP < 5).
if (!is_callable("stripos")) {
    function stripos($str, $needle, $offset = 0) {
        return strpos(strtolower($str), strtolower($needle), $offset);
    }
}function substrpos($str, $start, $end = false, $ignore_case = false) {
    // Use variable functions
    if ($ignore_case === true) {
        $strpos = 'stripos'; // stripos() is included above in case it's not defined (PHP < 5).
    } else {
        $strpos = 'strpos';
    }// If end is false, set it to the length of $str
    if ($end === false) {
        $end = strlen($str);
    }// If $start is a string do what's needed to make it an integer position for substr().
    if (is_string($start)) {
        // If $start begins with '-' start processing until there's no more matches and use the last one found.
        if ($start{0} == '-') {
            // Strip off the '-'
            $start = substr($start, 1);
            $found = false;
            $pos = 0;
            while(($curr_pos = $strpos($str, $start, $pos)) !== false) {
                $found = true;
                $pos = $curr_pos + 1;
            }
            if ($found === false) {
                $pos = false;
            } else {
                $pos -= 1;
            }
        } else {
            // If $start begins with '\-', strip off the '\'.
            if ($start{0} . $start{1} == '\-') {
                $start = substr($start, 1);
            }
            $pos = $strpos($str, $start);
        }
        $start = $pos !== false ? $pos : 0;
    }// Chop the string from $start to strlen($str).
    $str = substr($str, $start);// If $end is a string, do exactly what was done to $start, above.
    if (is_string($end)) {
        if ($end{0} == '-') {
            $end = substr($end, 1);
            $found = false;
            $pos = 0;
            while(($curr_pos = strpos($str, $end, $pos)) !== false) {
                $found = true;
                $pos = $curr_pos + 1;
            }
            if ($found === false) {
                $pos = false;
            } else {
                $pos -= 1;
            }
        } else {
            if ($end{0} . $end{1} == '\-') {
                $end = substr($end, 1);
            }
            $pos = $strpos($str, $end);
        }
        $end = $pos !== false ? $pos : strlen($str);
    }// Since $str has already been chopped at $start, we can pass 0 as the new $start for substr()
    return substr($str, 0, $end);
}?>

mar dot czapla at gmail dot com ¶
13 years ago

Here we have gr8 function which simply convert ip address to a number using substr with negative offset.

You can need it if you want to compare some IP addresses converted to a numbers.

For example when using ip2country, or eliminating same range of ip addresses from your website :D

function ip2no($val)

{   

    list($A,$B,$C,$D)    =    explode(".",$val);

    return

        substr("000".$A,-3).

        substr("000".$B,-3).

        substr("000".$C,-3).

        substr("000".$D,-3);

}
$min        =    ip2no("10.11.1.0");

$max        =    ip2no("111.11.1.0");

$visitor    =    ip2no("105.1.20.200");

if(
$min<$visitor && $visitor<$max)   

    {    echo 'Welcome !';    }

else   

    {    echo 'Get out of here !';    }
?>
 slow at acedsl dot com ¶
11
years ago

Anyone coming from the Python world will be accustomed to making substrings by using a "slice index" on a string.  The following function emulates basic Python string slice behavior. (A more elaborate version could be made to support array input as well as string, and the optional third "step" argument.)
function py_slice($input, $slice) {
    $arg = explode(':', $slice);
    $start = intval($arg[0]);
    if ($start < 0) {
        $start += strlen($input);
    }
    if (count($arg) === 1) {
        return substr($input, $start, 1);
    }
    if (trim($arg[1]) === '') {
        return substr($input, $start);
    }
    $end = intval($arg[1]);
    if ($end < 0) {
        $end += strlen($input);
    }
    return substr($input, $start, $end - $start);
}
print 
py_slice('abcdefg', '2') . "\n";
print py_slice('abcdefg', '2:4') . "\n";
print py_slice('abcdefg', '2:') . "\n";
print py_slice('abcdefg', ':4') . "\n";
print py_slice('abcdefg', ':-3') . "\n";
print py_slice('abcdefg', '-3:') . "\n";?>

The $slice parameter can be a single character index, or a range separated by a colon. The start of the range is inclusive and the end is exclusive, which may be  counterintuitive. (Eg, py_slice('abcdefg', '2:4') yields 'cd' not 'cde'). A negative range value means to count from the end of the string instead of the beginning. Both the start and end of the range may be omitted; the start defaults to 0 and the end defaults to the total length of the input.
The output from the examples:
c
cd
cdefg
abcd
abcd
efg
 Quicker ¶
11 years ago

If you need to parse utf-8 strings char by char, try this one:

     $utf8marker=chr(128);

     $count=0;

     while(isset($string{$count})){

       if($string{$count}>=$utf8marker) {

         $parsechar=substr($string,$count,2);

         $count+=2;

       } else {

         $parsechar=$string{$count};

         $count++;

       }

       /* do what you like with parsechar ... , eg.:*/  echo $parsechar."
\r\n";

     }

?>



- it works without mb_substr

- it is fast, because it grabs characters based on indexes  when possible and avoids any count and split functions


php_net at thomas dot trella dot de ¶
17 years ago

I needed to cut a string after x chars at a  html converted utf-8 text (for example Japanese text like 嬰謰弰脰欰罏). 
The problem was, the different length of the signs, so I wrote the following function to handle that.
Perhaps it helps.
function html_cutstr ($str, $len)
{
    if (!preg_match('/\&#[0-9]*;.*/i', $str))
    {
        $rVal = strlen($str, $len);
        break;
    }$chars = 0;
    $start = 0;
    for($i=0; $i < strlen($str); $i++)
    {
        if ($chars >= $len)
        break;$str_tmp = substr($str, $start, $i-$start);
        if (preg_match('/\&#[0-9]*;.*/i', $str_tmp))
        {
            $chars++;
            $start = $i;
        }
    }
    $rVal = substr($str, 0, $start);
    if (strlen($str) > $start)
    $rVal .= " ...";
    return $rVal;
}
?>

 leon weidauer ¶
11 years
ago

When using a value of a wrong type as second parameter , substr() does not return FALSE but NULL although the docs say, it should return FALSE on error.
Prior to PHP 5.3, substr() tries to cast the second parameter to int and doesn't throw any errors. Since PHP 5.3 a warning is thrown.

 post [at] jannik - zappe [dot] de ¶
14 years ago

Just a little function to cut a string by the wanted amount. Works in both directions.
function cutString($str, $amount = 1, $dir = "right")
{
  if(($n = strlen($str)) > 0)
  {
    if($dir == "right")
    {
      $start = 0;
      $end = $n-$amount;
    } elseif( $dir == "left") {
      $start = $amount;
      $end = $n;
    }
        return 
substr($str, $start, $end);
  } else return false;
}
?>

Enjoy ;)
 vnonov at gmail dot com / Viktor Nonov ¶
12 years ago

//removes string from the end of otherfunction removeFromEnd($string, $stringToRemove) {
    $stringToRemoveLen = strlen($stringToRemove);
    $stringLen = strlen($string);$pos = $stringLen - $stringToRemoveLen;$out = substr($string, 0, $pos);
    return 
$out;
}$string = 'picture.jpg.jpg';
$string = removeFromEnd($string, '.jpg');
?>
 robinhood70 at live dot
ca ¶
1 year ago

Prior to PHP 8, specifying length with zero-length strings or non-string values as input can produce potentially unexpected results.
foreach (['normal', '', true, false, NULL] as $value) {
    echo gettype(substr($value, 0, 10)) . ' ' . substr($value, 0, 10);
}/*
string normal
boolean
string 1
boolean
boolean
*/
?>

 webmaster at oehoeboeroe dot nl ¶
13 years ago

You might expect substr('123456', 6) to return an empty string. Instead it returns boolean FALSE.

This behavior should be mentioned in the Return Values section of the manual. Instead it is only mentioned in the Parameters section.

If you need an empty string instead of a boolean FALSE you should typecast the result to a string.

$a = substr('123456', 6);              // equivalent to $a = FALSE

$a = (string) substr('123456', 6);   // equivalent to $a = '';

?>

 Bradley from California ¶
16 years ago

Add on to (a function originally written by) "Matias from Argentina": str_format_number function.

Just added handling of $String shorter then $Format by adding a side to start the fill and a string length to the while loop.

function str_format_number($String, $Format, $Start = 'left'){

    //If we want to fill from right to left incase string is shorter then format

    if ($Start == 'right') {

        $String = strrev($String);

        $Format = strrev($Format);

    }

    if($Format == '') return $String;

    if($String == '') return $String;   

    $Result = '';

    $FormatPos = 0;

    $StringPos = 0;

    while ((strlen($Format) - 1) >= $FormatPos && strlen($String) > $StringPos) {

        //If its a number => stores it

        if (is_numeric(substr($Format, $FormatPos, 1))) {

            $Result .= substr($String, $StringPos, 1);

            $StringPos++;

            //If it is not a number => stores the caracter

        } else {

            $Result .= substr($Format, $FormatPos, 1);

        }

        //Next caracter at the mask.

        $FormatPos++;

    }

    if ($Start == 'right') $Result = strrev($Result);

    return $Result;

}

?>

 frank at
jkelloggs dot dk ¶
17 years ago

Regarding the utf8_substr function from lmak: The pattern '/./u' doesn't match newline characters. This means that the substring from 0 to the total length of the string will miss the number of characters in the end matching the number of newlines in the string. To fix this one can add the s modifier (PCRE_DOTALL) in the pattern:
function utf8_substr($str,$start)
{
   preg_match_all("/./su", $str, $ar);
   if(
func_num_args() >= 3) {
       $end = func_get_arg(2);
       return join("",array_slice($ar[0],$start,$end));
   } else {
       return join("",array_slice($ar[0],$start));
   }
}
?>
 link ¶
13 years ago

And as always there is bound to be a bug:
function strlen_entities($text)
{
    preg_match_all(
        '/((?:&(?:#[0-9]{2,}|[a-z]{2,});)|(?:[^&])|'.        
        '(?:&(?!\w;)))s',$text,$textarray);
    return count($textarray[0]);
} 
function substr_entities($text,$start,$limit=0)
{
    $return = '';
    preg_match_all(
        '/((?:&(?:#[0-9]{2,}|[a-z]{2,});)|(?:[^&])|'.        
        '(?:&(?!\w;)))s',$text,$textarray);
    $textarray = $textarray[0];
    $numchars = count($textarray)-1;
    if ($start>=$numchars)
        return false;
    if ($start<0)
    {
        $start = ($numchars)+$start+1;
    }
    if ($start>=0)
    {
        if ($limit==0)
        {
            $end=$numchars;
        }
        elseif ($limit>0)
        {
            $end = $start+($limit-1);
        }
        else
        {
            $end = ($numchars)+$limit;
        }
        for (
$i=$start;($i<=$end && isset($textarray[$i]));$i++)
        {
            $return .= $textarray[$i];
        }
        return $return;
    }
}
?>

 ivanhoe011 at gmail dot com ¶
17 years ago

If you need just a single character from the string you don't need to use substr(), just use curly braces notation:
    // both lines will output the 3rd character
    echo substr($my_string, 2, 1);
    echo $my_string{2};  
?>

curly braces syntax is faster and more readable IMHO..

 rob NOSPAM at clancentric dot
net ¶
17 years ago

I have developed a function with a similar outcome to jay's

Checks if the last character is or isnt a space. (does it the normal way if it is)

It explodes the string into an array of seperate works, the effect is... it chops off anything after and including the last space.

function limit_string($string, $charlimit)

{

    if(substr($string,$charlimit-1,1) != ' ')

    {

        $string = substr($string,'0',$charlimit);

        $array = explode(' ',$string);

        array_pop($array);

        $new_string = implode(' ',$array);

        return 
$new_string.'...';

    }

    else

    {   

        return substr($string,'0',$charlimit-1).'...';

    }

}

?>
 woutermb at gmail dot com ¶
17 years ago

Well this is a script I wrote, what it does is chop up long words with malicious meaning into several parts. This way, a chat in a table will not get stretched anymore.
function text($string,$limit=20,$chop=10){$text = explode(" ",$string);
while(list($key, $value) = each($text)){
    $length = strlen($value);
    if($length >=20){
        for($i=0;$i<=$length;$i+=10){
            $new .= substr($value, $i, 10);
            $new .= " ";
        }
         $post .= $new;
    }
    elseif($length <=15){
        $post .= $value;
    }
    $post .= " ";
}
return($post);
}// for example, this would return:
$output = text("Well this text doesn't get cut up, yet thisssssssssssssssssssssssss one does.", 10, 5);
echo(
$output); // "Well this text doesn't get cup up, yet thiss sssss sssss sssss sssss sss one does."
?>

I hope it was useful.. :)
 kriskra at gmail dot com ¶
14 years ago

The javascript charAt equivalent in php of felipe has a little bug. It's necessary to compare the type (implicit) aswell or the function returns a wrong result:
function charAt($str,$pos) {
    return (substr($str,$pos,1) !== false) ? substr($str,$pos,1) : -1;
}
?>

 steve at
unicycle dot co dot nz ¶
17 years ago

To quickly trim an optional trailing slash off the end of a path name:
if (substr( $path, -1 ) == '/') $path = substr( $path, 0, -1 );

 Nadeem ¶
8 years ago

Truncate a float number. Similar to the Excel trunc function.
function truncate_number($val,$decimals=2){$number=array();
        $number=explode(".",$val);            
        $result=0;
        if (
count($number)>1){$result = $number[0] . "." . substr($number[1],0,$decimals);                      } else {$result = $val;                    }
        unset($number);        return $result;    
}echo truncate_number(99.123456,2); //result = 99.12
echo truncate_number(99.123456,5); //result = 99.12345
echo truncate_number(99.123456,1); //result = 99.1
?>
 m.m.j.kronenburg ¶
6 years ago

/**
  * Returns and extracts the portion of string specified by the
  * start and length parameters from the original string.
  *
  * This function is simulair to function substr() except that it
  * removes the substring from the orignal string 
  * (passed by reference).
  *
  * @param string $string      The input string.
  * @param integer $start      The start position (see substr() for
  *                            explanation).
  * @param integer $length     The length (see substr()
  *                            for explanation).
  * @return mixed              The substring or FALSE (see substr() 
  *                            for explanation).
  **/
function substrex(&$string, $start, $length = PHP_INT_MAX)
{
  if($start > strlen($string)) { return false; }
  if(empty($length))           { return ''; }
  if($start < 0) { $start = max(0, $start + strlen($string)); }
  $end = ($length < 0) ? 
    strlen($string) + $length : 
    min(strlen($string), $start + $length);
  if($end < $start) { return false; }
  $length = $end - $start;
  $substr = substr($string, $start, $length);
  $string = substr($string, 0, $start).substr($string, $end);  
  return $substr;
}?>

 man13or at
hotmail dot fr ¶
2 years ago

Shortcuts :
Getting the first character of a string
substr($string, 1)
Getting the last character of a string
substr($string, -1)
Remove the first character of a string
substr($string,1)
Remove the last character of a string
substr($string, 0, -1)

 
How do I print a specific character from a string in PHP?
PHP has str_split () function, which is used to print every character of a string. No need to use any loop.
How do I allow special characters in PHP?
Tip: To convert special HTML entities back to characters, use the htmlspecialchars_decode() function..
 & (ampersand) becomes &.
 " (double quote) becomes ".
 ' (single quote) becomes '.
 < (less than) becomes <.
 > (greater than) becomes >.
 
How do I check if a string contains a specific character in PHP?
Answer: Use the PHP strpos() Function
You can use the PHP strpos() function to check whether a string contains a specific word or not. The strpos() function returns the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a string. If the substring is not found it returns false .
How can I get only the first letter in PHP?
To get the first character from a string, we can use the substr() function by passing 0,1 as second and third arguments in PHP.

programming php Htmlspecialchars PHP escape string

How do i display a specific character in php?

Edit (4 years later):

PHP

PHP

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Changelog

Examples

See Also

How do I print a specific character from a string in PHP?

How do I allow special characters in PHP?

How do I check if a string contains a specific character in PHP?

How can I get only the first letter in PHP?

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