substr

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

substrRetorna parte de uma string

Descrição

substr(string $string, int $offset, ?int $length = null): string

Retorna a parte de string especificada pelo parâmetro offset e length.

Parâmetros

string

A string de entrada

offset

Se offset for não-negativo, a string retornada iniciará na posição offset em string, começando em zero. Por exemplo, na string 'abcdef', o caractere na posição 0 é 'a', na posição 2 é 'c', e assim por diante.

Se offset for negativo, a string retornada irá começar no caractere offset contado a partir do fim da string.

Se a string for mais curta que o parâmetro offset, uma string vazia será retornada.

Exemplo #1 Usando um offset negativo

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

length

Se length for fornecido e for positivo, a string retornada irá conter, no máximo, length caracteres começando em offset (dependendo do tamanho da string).

Se length for informado e for negativo, então esta quantidade caracteres será omitida do final da string (após a posicão de inicio ter sido calculada quando offset for negativo). Se offset denota a posição da truncagem ou além, uma string vazia será retornada.

Se length for informado e for igual a 0, uma string vazia será retornada.

Se length for omitido ou null, a substring iniciando em offset será retornada.

Exemplo #2 Usando um length negativo

<?php
$rest
= substr("abcdef", 0, -1); // retorna "abcde"
$rest = substr("abcdef", 2, -1); // retorna "cde"
$rest = substr("abcdef", 4, -4); // retorna ""; antes do PHP 8.0.0, falso era retornado
$rest = substr("abcdef", -3, -1); // retorna "de"
?>

Valor Retornado

Retorna a parte extraída da string, ou uma string vazia.

Registro de Alterações

Versão Descrição
8.0.0 length agora pode ser nulo. Quando length for especificamente definido para null, a função retorna uma substring terminando no final da string, quando anteriormente retornava uma string vazia.
8.0.0 A função retorna uma string vazia quando antes retornava false.

Exemplos

Exemplo #3 Uso básico de substr()

<?php
echo substr('abcdef', 1); // bcdef
echo substr("abcdef", 1, null); // bcdef; antes do PHP 8.0.0, string vazia era retornada
echo substr('abcdef', 1, 3); // bcd
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 4); // abcd
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 8); // abcdef
echo substr('abcdef', -1, 1); // f

// O acesso a caracteres individuais pode
// ser feito atravéz de indexação
$string = 'abcdef';
echo
$string[0]; // a
echo $string[3]; // d
echo $string[strlen($string)-1]; // f

?>

Exemplo #4 Comportamento de conversão no substr()

<?php
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;
?>

O exemplo acima produzirá:

1) 'pe'
2) '54'
3) 'gr'
4) '1'
5) ''
6) ''
7) '1200'

Exemplo #5 Faixa Inválida de Caracteres

Se uma faixa inválida de caracteres for requisitada, substr() retorna uma string vazia a partir do PHP 8.0.0; anteriormente, false era retornado.

<?php
var_dump
(substr('a', 2));
?>

Saída do exemplo acima no PHP 8:

string(0) ""

Saída do exemplo acima no PHP 7:

bool(false)

Veja Também

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User Contributed Notes 36 notes

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168
Andreas Bur (andreas dot buro at gmail dot com)
15 years ago
For getting a substring of UTF-8 characters, I highly recommend mb_substr

<?php
        $utf8string
= "cakeæøå";

        echo
substr($utf8string,0,5);
       
// output cake#
       
echo mb_substr($utf8string,0,5,'UTF-8');
       
//output cakeæ
?>
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123
biohazard dot ge at gmail dot com
11 years ago
may be by following functions will be easier to extract the needed sub parts from a string:

<?php
after
('@', 'biohazard@online.ge');
//returns 'online.ge'
//from the first occurrence of '@'

before ('@', 'biohazard@online.ge');
//returns 'biohazard'
//from the first occurrence of '@'

between ('@', '.', 'biohazard@online.ge');
//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:

<?php

   
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);
};
?>
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4
Anonymous
7 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)
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15
pugazhenthi k
11 years ago
<?Php

### 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;
}

?>
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10
greg at apparel dot com
11 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);
}
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6
nikolai dot wuestemann at t-online dot de
13 years ago
If you want to have a string BETWEEN two strings, just use this function:

<?php
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
?>
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4
bleakwind at msn dot com
19 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... :(

<?php
// 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;$i++){
    echo
"<br>".bite_str($str,$i,20);   
}
?>
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5
fatihmertdogancan at hotmail dot com
10 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,
<?php
$s
= "fatihmertdogancan";
echo
str($s,"1:9:-2");
echo
"<br/>";
echo
str($s,"1:-3:-2");
echo
"<br/>";
echo
str($s,"1:-11:-5");
echo
"<br/>";
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;

<?php
   
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..
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3
kaysar in ymail in com
15 years ago
Drop extensions of a file (even from a file location string)

<?php

$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.. (^_^)
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6
Petez
17 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:

<?php
/* 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.
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3
link
15 years ago
I created some functions for entity-safe splitting+lengthcounting:

<?php
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;
    }
}
?>
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2
pheagey at gmail dot com
12 years ago
Using a 0 as the last parameter for substr().

As per examples
<?php $var = substr($var, 4); ?>

works no problem. However
<?php $var = substr($var, 4, 0); ?>

will get you nothing. Just a quick heads up
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2
gkhelloworld at gmail dot com
15 years ago
Shortens the filename and its expansion has seen.

<?php
$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
?>
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5
fanfatal at fanfatal dot pl
19 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

<?php

/**
* 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 ;]
...
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5
slow at acedsl dot com
13 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.)

<?php

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
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2
egingell at sisna dot com
18 years ago
<?php

/**
* 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);
}

?>
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4
mar dot czapla at gmail dot com
16 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

<?php

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 !';    }

?>
up
1
Quicker
13 years ago
If you need to parse utf-8 strings char by char, try this one:

<?php
     $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."<BR>\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
up
1
php_net at thomas dot trella dot de
19 years ago
I needed to cut a string after x chars at a  html converted utf-8 text (for example Japanese text like &#23344;&#35632;&#24368;&#33072;&#27440;&#32591;).
The problem was, the different length of the signs, so I wrote the following function to handle that.
Perhaps it helps.

<?php

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;
}
?>
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1
leon weidauer
13 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.
up
1
Cristianlf
14 years ago
I needed a function like lpad from oracle, or right from SQL
then I use this code :

<?php
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,
up
1
post [at] jannik - zappe [dot] de
16 years ago
Just a little function to cut a string by the wanted amount. Works in both directions.

<?php
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 ;)
up
1
vnonov at gmail dot com / Viktor Nonov
14 years ago
<?php

//removes string from the end of other

function 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');
?>
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-2
robinhood70 at live dot ca
3 years ago
Prior to PHP 8, specifying length with zero-length strings or non-string values as input can produce potentially unexpected results.

<?php
foreach (['normal', '', true, false, NULL] as $value) {
    echo
gettype(substr($value, 0, 10)) . ' ' . substr($value, 0, 10);
}

/*
string normal
boolean
string 1
boolean
boolean
*/
?>
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1
webmaster at oehoeboeroe dot nl
15 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.

<?php
$a
= substr('123456', 6);              // equivalent to $a = FALSE
$a = (string) substr('123456', 6);   // equivalent to $a = '';
?>
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1
steve at unicycle dot co dot nz
19 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 );
up
1
Bradley from California
18 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.

<?php
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;
}
?>
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1
frank at jkelloggs dot dk
19 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:

<?php
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));
   }
}
?>
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0
link
15 years ago
And as always there is bound to be a bug:

<?php
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
$return;
    }
}
?>
up
0
kriskra at gmail dot com
16 years ago
The javascript charAt equivalent in php of felipe has a little bug. It's necessary to compare the type (implicit) aswell or the function returns a wrong result:
<?php
function charAt($str,$pos) {
    return (
substr($str,$pos,1) !== false) ? substr($str,$pos,1) : -1;
}
?>
up
0
ivanhoe011 at gmail dot com
19 years ago
If you need just a single character from the string you don't need to use substr(), just use curly braces notation:

<?php
   
// 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..
up
0
rob NOSPAM at clancentric dot net
19 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.

<?php
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).'...';
    }
}
?>
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0
woutermb at gmail dot com
19 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.

<?php

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.. :)
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-3
Nadeem
10 years ago
Truncate a float number. Similar to the Excel trunc function.

<?php
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
?>
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-4
m.m.j.kronenburg
8 years ago
<?php

/**
  * 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;
}

?>
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-9
man13or at hotmail dot fr
5 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)
To Top