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trim> <substr_replace
Last updated: Fri, 06 Nov 2009

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substr

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

substrReturn part of a string

Description

string substr ( string $string , int $start [, int $length ] )

Returns the portion of string specified by the start and length parameters.

Parameters

string

The input string.

start

If start is non-negative, the returned string will start at the start '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 start is negative, the returned string will start at the start 'th character from the end of string .

If string is less than or equal to start characters long, FALSE will be returned.

Example #1 Using a negative start

<?php
$rest 
substr("abcdef", -1);    // returns "f"
$rest substr("abcdef", -2);    // returns "ef"
$rest substr("abcdef", -31); // returns "d"
?>

length

If length is given and is positive, the string returned will contain at most length characters beginning from start (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 start is negative). If start denotes a position beyond this truncation, an empty string will be returned.

If length is given and is 0, FALSE or NULL an empty string will be returned.

Example #2 Using a negative length

<?php
$rest 
substr("abcdef"0, -1);  // returns "abcde"
$rest substr("abcdef"2, -1);  // returns "cde"
$rest substr("abcdef"4, -4);  // returns ""
$rest substr("abcdef", -3, -1); // returns "de"
?>

Return Values

Returns the extracted part of string.

Examples

Example #3 Basic substr() usage

<?php
echo substr('abcdef'1);     // bcdef
echo substr('abcdef'13);  // bcd
echo substr('abcdef'04);  // abcd
echo substr('abcdef'08);  // abcdef
echo substr('abcdef', -11); // 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

?>

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



trim> <substr_replace
Last updated: Fri, 06 Nov 2009
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
substr
info /a/ nopticon /dot/ com
08-Oct-2009 04:52
<?php

// Substring without losing word meaning and
// tiny words (length 3 by default) are included on the result.
// "..." is added if result do not reach original string length

function _substr($str, $length, $minword = 3)
{
   
$sub = '';
   
$len = 0;
   
    foreach (
explode(' ', $str) as $word)
    {
       
$part = (($sub != '') ? ' ' : '') . $word;
       
$sub .= $part;
       
$len += strlen($part);
       
        if (
strlen($word) > $minword && strlen($sub) >= $length)
        {
            break;
        }
    }
   
    return
$sub . (($len < strlen($str)) ? '...' : '');
}

?>
kaj dot strom at kapsi dot fi
05-Oct-2009 09:42
One thing to keep in mind when using string indexes and UTF-8 is that string indexes are NOT multi-byte safe.

<?php
$string
= 'äää1';
echo
$string[3];
?>

Outputs:
¤

When it logically should output "1". This is not a bug, as PHP 'normal' string functions are not intended to be multi-byte safe. This can be solved by using this function

<?php
/**
 *
 * @param string $string String to "search" from
 * @param int $index Index of the letter we want.
 * @return string The letter found on $index.
 */
function charAt($string, $index){
    if(
$index < mb_strlen($string)){
        return
mb_substr($string, $index, 1);
    }
    else{
        return -
1;
    }
}
?>
gkhelloworld at gmail dot com
26-Jul-2009 08:44
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
// other simples on rollyz.net
gkhelloworld at gmail dot com
26-Jul-2009 08:40
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
// other simples on rollyz.net
gkhelloworld at gmail dot com
26-Jul-2009 08:39
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
?>
erez at meezoog dot com
07-Jul-2009 02:59
An improvement to substrws - multi-byte, and closes tags better.

/**
* word-sensitive substring function with html tags awareness
* @param text The text to cut
* @param len The maximum length of the cut string
* @returns string
**/
function mb_substrws( $text, $len=180 ) {

    if( (mb_strlen($text) > $len) ) {

        $whitespaceposition = mb_strpos($text," ",$len)-1;

        if( $whitespaceposition > 0 ) {
            $chars = count_chars(mb_substr($text, 0, ($whitespaceposition+1)), 1);
            if ($chars[ord('<')] > $chars[ord('>')])
                $whitespaceposition = mb_strpos($text,">",$whitespaceposition)-1;
            $text = mb_substr($text, 0, ($whitespaceposition+1));
        }

        // close unclosed html tags
        if( preg_match_all("|<([a-zA-Z]+)|",$text,$aBuffer) ) {

            if( !empty($aBuffer[1]) ) {

                preg_match_all("|</([a-zA-Z]+)>|",$text,$aBuffer2);

                if( count($aBuffer[1]) != count($aBuffer2[1]) ) {

                    foreach( $aBuffer[1] as $index => $tag ) {

                        if( empty($aBuffer2[1][$index]) || $aBuffer2[1][$index] != $tag)
                            $text .= '</'.$tag.'>';
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return $text;
}
kaysar in ymail in com
08-Jun-2009 04:58
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.. (^_^)
benny at bennyborn dot de
06-May-2009 06:52
If you need a word-sensitive and also html-tags aware version of substr, this one should do the job. It works fine for me

<?php
/**
* word-sensitive substring function with html tags awareness
* @param text The text to cut
* @param len The maximum length of the cut string
* @returns string
**/
function substrws( $text, $len=180 ) {

    if( (
strlen($text) > $len) ) {

       
$whitespaceposition = strpos($text," ",$len)-1;

        if(
$whitespaceposition > 0 )
           
$text = substr($text, 0, ($whitespaceposition+1));

       
// close unclosed html tags
       
if( preg_match_all("|<([a-zA-Z]+)>|",$text,$aBuffer) ) {

            if( !empty(
$aBuffer[1]) ) {

               
preg_match_all("|</([a-zA-Z]+)>|",$text,$aBuffer2);

                if(
count($aBuffer[1]) != count($aBuffer2[1]) ) {

                    foreach(
$aBuffer[1] as $index => $tag ) {

                        if( empty(
$aBuffer2[1][$index]) || $aBuffer2[1][$index] != $tag)
                           
$text .= '</'.$tag.'>';
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    return
$text;
}
?>
Andreas Bur (andreas dot buro at gmail dot com)
29-Apr-2009 11:25
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
?>
webmaster at oehoeboeroe dot nl
18-Apr-2009 07:07
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 = '';
?>
Jakob S.
15-Apr-2009 12:13
If you need to get the first $num Chars of $str and remove them from $str you'll want to use following function:

<?php
function string_shift(&$str,$num) {
   
$cutOff=substr($str,0,$num);
   
$str=substr($str,$num);
    return
$cutOff;
}
?>
sajjad at sajjad dot biz
08-Apr-2009 05:28
Substring utf-8 strings!
very simple!

<?php
function substru($str,$from,$len){
    return
preg_replace('#^(?:[\x00-\x7F]|[\xC0-\xFF][\x80-\xBF]+){0,'. $from .'}'.'((?:[\x00-\x7F]|[\xC0-\xFF][\x80-\xBF]+){0,'. $len .'}).*#s','$1', $str);
}
?>
link
21-Mar-2009 11:52
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;
    }
}
?>
link
21-Mar-2009 01:19
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;
    }
}
?>
ralphingATNOSPAMDOTpocztaDOTonetDOTpl
10-Mar-2009 11:08
this function return string between two delimiters
i found it very useful to get text between html tags

<?php
function strbet($inputStr, $delimeterLeft, $delimeterRight, $debug=false) {
   
$posLeft=strpos($inputStr, $delimeterLeft);
    if (
$posLeft===false ) {
        if (
$debug ) {
            echo
"Warning: left delimiter '{$delimeterLeft}' not found";
        }
        return
false;
    }
   
$posLeft+=strlen($delimeterLeft);
   
$posRight=strpos($inputStr, $delimeterRight, $posLeft);
    if (
$posRight===false ) {
        if (
$debug ) {
            echo
"Warning: right delimiter '{$delimeterRight}' not found";
        }
        return
false;
    }
    return
substr($inputStr, $posLeft, $posRight-$posLeft);
}
?>
jude dot dadzie at gmail dot com
24-Feb-2009 01:30
Here's a simple direct way of extracting the information you need from a string...

Suppose your string is "C:/www/vhosts/example.com/images/image1.jpg" which points to an image. Let's assume you want the part "images/image1.jpg". We have to do the ff:

<?php
$image
="C:/www/vhosts/example.com/images/image1.jpg"

$image=substr($image,strpos($image,'image', (strlen($image)-strpos($image,'image'))));

echo
$image."<br/>"; //will give 'images/image1.jpg'
?>
wrapbit at yahoo dot com
31-Oct-2008 07:00
<?php
$cfg
[csvEnc] = '"';
$cfg[csvEsc] = '\\';
$cfg[csvTerm] = ",";

if( !
function_exists("parse_csv_aux") ){
    function
parse_csv_aux( $string ){
        global
$cfg;
       
$product = "";
       
$in_quote = FALSE;
       
$skipped_quote = FALSE;
        for(
$i = 0 ; $i < strlen($string) ; $i++){
            if(
$string{$i} == $cfg[csvEnc] ){
                if(
$in_quote){
                    if(
$skipped_quote){
                       
$product .= $cfg[csvEnc];
                       
$skipped_quote = FALSE;
                    }
                    else if( !
$skipped_quote ){
                       
$skipped_quote = TRUE;
                    }
                   
$in_quote = FALSE;
                }
                else{
                    if(
$skipped_quote) $skipped_quote = FALSE;
                   
$in_quote = TRUE;
                }
            }
            else if(
$string{$i} == "," ){
                if(
$in_quote){
                   
$product .= ",";
                }
                else{
                   
$product .= " ~ ";
                }
            }
            else{
                if(
$in_quote){
                   
//$in_quote = FALSE;
                   
$product .= $string{$i};
                }
                else{
                   
$product .= $string{$i};
                }
            }
        }
        return
$product;
    }
}

if( !
function_exists("parse_csv") ){
    function
parse_csv($string){
        global
$cfg;
       
$data = array();
        if(
is_string($string) && ( stripos($string, "\n") !== FALSE )    ){
           
$data = explode("\n", parse_csv_aux($string) );
            foreach(
$data as $key => $row){
               
$columns = array();
               
//$row = strtr(    $row, array( "\";\"" => "\";\"", ";" => " ; " )    );
               
if( stripos($row, " ~ ") !== FALSE ){
                   
$columns = explode( " ~ ", $row );
                    if( !
is_array($columns) )$columns = array( strval($columns) );
                   
$data[$key] = $columns;
                }
            }
            return
$data;
        }
        else if(
is_string($string) && ( stripos( ($string = parse_csv_aux($string)), " ~ ") !== FALSE )    ){
           
$columns = explode( " ~ ", $string );
            if( !
is_array($columns) )$columns = array( strval($columns) );
            return array(
$columns);
        }
        else return
strval($string);
    }
/* end function parse_csv */
} /* end not function exists parse_csv */

if( !function_exists("store_csv_aux") ){
    function
store_csv_aux( $string ){
        global
$cfg;
       
$string = strtr( $string, array( "\n" => "" ) );
       
$product = "";
       
$in_quote = FALSE;
        for(
$i = 0 ; $i < strlen($string) ; $i++ ){
            if(
$string{$i} == $cfg[csvEnc] ){
                if(
$in_quote){
                   
$product .= "\"{$cfg[csvEnc]}";
                }
                else{
                   
$product .= "\"\"{$cfg[csvEnc]}";
                   
$in_quote = TRUE;
                }
            }
            else if(
$string{$i} == "," ){
                if(
$in_quote){
                   
$product .= ",";
                }
                else{
                   
$product .= "\",";
                   
$in_quote = TRUE;
                }
            }
            else{
                if(
$in_quote){
                   
$product .= $cfg[csvEnc];
                   
$in_quote = FALSE;
                   
$product .= $string{$i};
                }
                else{
                   
$product .= $string{$i};
                }
            }
        }
        if(
$in_quote)$product .= $cfg[csvEnc];
        return
$product;
    }
}

if( !
function_exists("store_csv") ){
    function
store_csv($data){
        global
$cfg;
        if(!
is_array($data))return strval($data);
       
$passed_rows = FALSE;
       
$product = "";
        foreach(
$data as $row){
            if(
$passed_rows )$product .= "\n";
            if(
is_array($row) ){
               
$columns = "";
               
$passed_cols = FALSE;
                foreach(
$row as $column){
                    if(
$passed_cols )$columns .= ",";
                   
$columns .= store_csv_aux( $column );
                   
$passed_cols =TRUE;
                }
               
$product .= strval($columns);
            }
            else{
               
$product .= strtr( strval($row), array("\n" => "") );
            }
           
$passed_rows = TRUE;
        }
        return
$product;
    }
/* end function store_csv */
} /* end not function exists store_csv */
?>

[EDIT BY danbrown AT php DOT net: This is a bugfix rewrite of a function originally written by "Alexander Peev".]
bill at eupeople dot net
30-Oct-2008 10:52
hi, really basic function to take blob with full http url's and turn then into "more info" links, handy for page layout etc ;)

<?php
function urltolink($data){

    while (
strpos($wdata, "http")) {

   
$op=strpos($wdata, "http");
   
$rdata=substr($wdata, 0, $op);
   
$ndata=substr($wdata, $op, strlen($wdata)-$op);
   
   
$cp=strpos($ndata, "\n");
   
$link=substr($ndata, 0, $cp);
   
$oc=$op+$cp;
   
$wdata=substr($wdata, $oc, strlen($wdata)-$oc);
   
   
$edata=$edata."$rdata <a href=\"$link\">more info</a><br />";
    }
    return
$edata;
}
?>
mar dot czapla at gmail dot com
24-Oct-2008 07:31
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 !';    }

?>
mr.davin
29-Sep-2008 03:01
Simple use of substr to determine possession:

<?php
function possessive ($word) {
    return 
$word.(substr($word, -1) == 's' ? "'" : "'s");
}

// Davis => Davis'
// Paul => Paul's
?>
NULL_byte
19-Sep-2008 08:21
<?php

function insert_substr($str, $pos, $substr) {
   
$part1 = substr($str, 0, -$pos);
   
$part2 = substr($str, -$pos);
    return
$part1.$substr.$part2;
}

?>
baldaris69 at yahoo dot com
29-Aug-2008 05:57
***Caution newbie***
To extract a file Extension this fuction could be useful.

<?php
$file_extension
= substr($filename , strrpos($filename , '. ') +1);
?>

Suppose your file name is Baldaris.jpeg

strrpos will return the last dot position in the string 9 so

so the compiler will execute substr($filename , 10)

$file_extension will have value jpeg

pretty cool...

Cheer's

Baldaris
post [at] jannik - zappe [dot] de
05-Aug-2008 12:59
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 ;)
jamesvanboxtel at wsu dot edu
31-Jul-2008 07:17
Here is a quick function to get the substring of a string up to and including the last occurrence of $needle

<?php
function substrtruncate($string, $needle)
{
    return
substr($string, 0, strrpos($string, $needle)+1);
}

$current_dir = substrtruncate($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'], '/');
?>
Anonymous
29-Jul-2008 04:18
I wrote this simple function to limit the middle characters of a string to a specified length.

<?php
$input
= "hello world"
echo(limitchrmid($imput,10)) // hel ... rld

//limit chars middle
function limitchrmid($value,$lenght){
    if (
strlen($value) >= $lenght ){
       
$lenght_max = ($lenght/2)-3;
       
$start = strlen($value)- $lenght_max;
       
$limited = substr($value,0,$lenght_max);
       
$limited.= " ... ";                  
       
$limited.= substr($value,$start,$lenght_max);
    }
    else{
       
$limited = $value;
    }
    return
$limited;
}
?>
svihel
27-Jun-2008 06:09
joao dot martins at plako dot net
26-Mar-2008 09:14

ben at enemy dot dk
10-Feb-2008 05:48

Updated function. The previous one will return empty value if the $string has no letter spaces. This is usefull if some of your strings have only one word.

<?php
function cutText($string, $setlength) {
   
$length = $setlength;
    if(
$length<strlen($string)){
        while ((
$string{$length} != " ") AND ($length > 0)) {
           
$length--;
        }
        if (
$length == 0) return substr($string, 0, $setlength);
        else return
substr($string, 0, $length);
    }else return
$string;
}
?>
serzh at nm dot ru
03-Jun-2008 08:13
easy and quick way to limit length of a text by not cutting full words:

textLimit('some words', 7) is 'some...'

<?php
function textLimit($string, $length, $replacer = '...')
{
  if(
strlen($string) > $length)
  return (
preg_match('/^(.*)\W.*$/', substr($string, 0, $length+1), $matches) ? $matches[1] : substr($string, 0, $length)) . $replacer;
 
  return
$string;
}
?>
Anonymous
17-Mar-2008 09:53
Split a string to an array of strings specified by an array of lengths:

<?php
function split_by_lengths($inString, $arrayLengths)
{
   
$output = array();
    foreach (
$arrayLengths as $oneLength)
    {
       
$output[] = substr($inString, 0, $oneLength);
       
$inString = substr($inString, $oneLength);
    }
    return (
$output);
}
?>
split_by_lengths('teststringtestteststring', array(4,6,4,4,6)) returns:
array('test','string','test','test','string')

Don't use it on user input without some error handling!
kriskra at gmail dot com
29-Feb-2008 11:21
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;
}
?>
Anonymous
22-Feb-2008 11:12
I've used the between, after, before, etc functions that biohazard put together for years and they work great.  I've also added to it a new function that I use a lot and thought others might like it as well.  It uses his before/after functions so they are required to use it.

<?php
$example_html
= "<p>test1 Test2</p><title>hi there</title><p>Testing</p>";
$paragraph_text = multi_between('<p>', '</p>', $example_html);

//Prints an arry of:
//Array ( [1] => test1 Test2 [2] => Testing )
print_r($paragraph_text);

function
multi_between($this, $that, $inthat)
{
  
$counter = 0;
   while (
$inthat)
   {
     
$counter++;
     
$elements[$counter] = before($that, $inthat);
     
$elements[$counter] = after($this, $elements[$counter]);
     
$inthat = after($that, $inthat);
   }
   return
$elements;
}
//Get the help functions from biohazard's post below.
?>
highstrike at gmail dot com
06-Jan-2008 02:47
Because i didnt see a function that would cut a phrase from a text (article or whatever) no matter where, front/middle/end and add ... + keeping the words intact, i wrote this:

Usage:
- The parameter $value if array will need the whole text and the portion you want to start from, a string. EG: cuttext(array($text, $string), 20). If the string is "have" and is near the beginning of the text, the function will cut like "I have a car ...", if the string is in the middle somewhere it will cut like "... if you want to have your own car ..." and if its somewhere near the end it will cut like "... and you will have one."
- The $length parameter is self explanatory.

Note: if you have just a string "127hh43h2h52312453jfks2" and you want to cut it, just use the function like so: cuttext($string, 10) and it will cut it like "127hh43h2h..."

<?php

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Function:         cuttext
// Description: Cuts a string and adds ...

function cuttext($value, $length)
{   
    if(
is_array($value)) list($string, $match_to) = $value;
    else {
$string = $value; $match_to = $value{0}; }

   
$match_start = stristr($string, $match_to);
   
$match_compute = strlen($string) - strlen($match_start);

    if (
strlen($string) > $length)
    {
        if (
$match_compute < ($length - strlen($match_to)))
        {
           
$pre_string = substr($string, 0, $length);
           
$pos_end = strrpos($pre_string, " ");
            if(
$pos_end === false) $string = $pre_string."...";
            else
$string = substr($pre_string, 0, $pos_end)."...";
        }
        else if (
$match_compute > (strlen($string) - ($length - strlen($match_to))))
        {
           
$pre_string = substr($string, (strlen($string) - ($length - strlen($match_to))));
           
$pos_start = strpos($pre_string, " ");
           
$string = "...".substr($pre_string, $pos_start);
            if(
$pos_start === false) $string = "...".$pre_string;
            else
$string = "...".substr($pre_string, $pos_start);
        }
        else
        {       
           
$pre_string = substr($string, ($match_compute - round(($length / 3))), $length);
           
$pos_start = strpos($pre_string, " "); $pos_end = strrpos($pre_string, " ");
           
$string = "...".substr($pre_string, $pos_start, $pos_end)."...";
            if(
$pos_start === false && $pos_end === false) $string = "...".$pre_string."...";
            else
$string = "...".substr($pre_string, $pos_start, $pos_end)."...";
        }

       
$match_start = stristr($string, $match_to);
       
$match_compute = strlen($string) - strlen($match_start);
    }
   
    return
$string;
}

?>
morgangalpin att gmail dotty com
24-Sep-2007 03:55
Adding the $limit parameter introduced a bug that was not present in the original. If $limit is small or negative, a string with a length exceeding the limit can be returned. The $limit parameter should be checked. It takes slightly more processing, but it is dwarfed in comparison to the use of strlen().

<?php
 
function short_name($str, $limit)
  {
   
// Make sure a small or negative limit doesn't cause a negative length for substr().
   
if ($limit < 3)
    {
     
$limit = 3;
    }

   
// Now truncate the string if it is over the limit.
   
if (strlen($str) > $limit)
    {
      return
substr($str, 0, $limit - 3) . '...';
    }
    else
    {
      return
$str;
    }
  }
?>
corphi
12-Sep-2007 09:06
I prefer
<?php
function short_name($str, $limit)
{
    return
strlen($str) > $limit ? substr($str, 0, $limit - 3) . '...' : $str;
}
?>

Now, every returned string has a maximum length of $limit chars (instead of $limit + 3).
Petez
31-Aug-2007 08:56
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.
ein at anti-logic dot com
30-Jul-2007 08:06
If you need to divide a large string (binary data for example) into segments, a much quicker way to do it is to use streams and the php://memory stream wrapper.

For example, if you have a large string in memory, write it to a memory stream like
<?php
$segment_length
= 8192; // this is how long our peice will be
$fp = fopen("php://memory", 'r+'); // create a handle to a memory stream resource
fputs($fp, $payload); // write data to the stream
$total_length=ftell($fp); // get the length of the stream
$payload_chunk = fread ( $fp, $segment_length  );
?>

Working with large data sets, mine was 21MB, increased the speed several factors.
Robert Chapin
26-Jun-2007 07:40
All the references to "curly braces" on this page appear to be obsolete.

According to http://us.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php

"Using square array-brackets is preferred because the {braces} style is deprecated as of PHP 6."

Robert Chapin
Chapin Information Services
lanny at freemail dot hu
26-Jun-2007 08:31
Starting from version 5.2.3 if $start is negative and larger then the length of the string, the result is an empty string, while in earlier versions the result was the string itself!

substr ("abcdef", -1000);

result in 5.2.0
'abcdef'

result in 5.2.3
''

This is a small inconsistency, one of those things that makes the life of a PHP programmer like hell.
Antoine
10-May-2007 02:08
The functions submitted below are a waste of time and memory. To convert a string to an integer or a trimmed float, use the built in conversion instead of parsing the string, e.g :

<?php
$x
= "27.2400";
echo (float)
$x; // 27.24
echo (int)$x; // 27
?>
siavashg at gmail dot com
06-Mar-2007 07:51
A further addition to Jean-Felix function to extract data between delimeters.

The previous function wouldn't return the correct data if the delimeters used where long than one char. Instead the following function should do the job.

<?php
function extractBetweenDelimeters($inputstr,$delimeterLeft,$delimeterRight) {
  
$posLeft  = stripos($inputstr,$delimeterLeft)+strlen($delimeterLeft);
  
$posRight = stripos($inputstr,$delimeterRight,$posLeft+1);
   return 
substr($inputstr,$posLeft,$posRight-$posLeft);
}
?>
Jean-Felix, Bern
28-Feb-2007 01:10
If you need to extract information in a string between delimeters then you can use this:

Inputstring is:
"Heidi Klum Supermodel" <info@HeidiKlum.com>

Here the script
<?php
   $emailadresse
= "\"Heidi Klum Supermodel\" <info@HeidiKlum.com>";
  
  
$outputvalue = extractBetweenDelimeters($emailadresse,"\"","\"");
   echo 
$outputvalue// shows Heidi Klum Supermodel
  
echo "<br>";
  
$outputvalue = extractBetweenDelimeters($emailadresse,"<",">");
   echo 
$outputvalue// shows info@HeidiKlum.com
  
  
  
function extractBetweenDelimeters($inputstr,$delimeterLeft,$delimeterRight) {
   
$posLeft  = stripos($inputstr,$delimeterLeft)+1;
   
$posRight = stripos($inputstr,$delimeterRight,$posLeft+1);
    return 
substr($inputstr,$posLeft,$posRight-$posLeft);
   }
  
?>
ijavier aka(not imatech) igjav
14-Feb-2007 08:20
<?php
/*
    An advanced substr but without breaking words in the middle.
    Comes in 3 flavours, one gets up to length chars as a maximum, the other with length chars as a minimum up to the next word, and the other considers removing final dots, commas and etcteteras for the sake of beauty (hahaha).
   This functions were posted by me some years ago, in the middle of the ages I had to use them in some corporations incorporated, with the luck to find them in some php not up to date mirrors. These mirrors are rarely being more not up to date till the end of the world... Well, may be am I the only person that finds usef not t bre word in th middl?

Than! (ks)

This is the calling syntax:

    snippet(phrase,[max length],[phrase tail])
    snippetgreedy(phrase,[max length before next space],[phrase tail])

*/

function snippet($text,$length=64,$tail="...") {
   
$text = trim($text);
   
$txtl = strlen($text);
    if(
$txtl > $length) {
        for(
$i=1;$text[$length-$i]!=" ";$i++) {
            if(
$i == $length) {
                return
substr($text,0,$length) . $tail;
            }
        }
       
$text = substr($text,0,$length-$i+1) . $tail;
    }
    return
$text;
}

// It behaves greedy, gets length characters ore goes for more

function snippetgreedy($text,$length=64,$tail="...") {
   
$text = trim($text);
    if(
strlen($text) > $length) {
        for(
$i=0;$text[$length+$i]!=" ";$i++) {
            if(!
$text[$length+$i]) {
                return
$text;
            }
        }
       
$text = substr($text,0,$length+$i) . $tail;
    }
    return
$text;
}

// The same as the snippet but removing latest low punctuation chars,
// if they exist (dots and commas). It performs a later suffixal trim of spaces

function snippetwop($text,$length=64,$tail="...") {
   
$text = trim($text);
   
$txtl = strlen($text);
    if(
$txtl > $length) {
        for(
$i=1;$text[$length-$i]!=" ";$i++) {
            if(
$i == $length) {
                return
substr($text,0,$length) . $tail;
            }
        }
        for(;
$text[$length-$i]=="," || $text[$length-$i]=="." || $text[$length-$i]==" ";$i++) {;}
       
$text = substr($text,0,$length-$i+1) . $tail;
    }
    return
$text;
}

/*
echo(snippet("this is not too long to run on the column on the left, perhaps, or perhaps yes, no idea") . "<br>");
echo(snippetwop("this is not too long to run on the column on the left, perhaps, or perhaps yes, no idea") . "<br>");
echo(snippetgreedy("this is not too long to run on the column on the left, perhaps, or perhaps yes, no idea"));
*/
?>
persisteus at web dot de
13-Feb-2007 01:45
Here is also a nice (but a bit slow) alternative for colorizing an true color image:

<?php
// $colorize = hexadecimal code in String format, f.e. "10ffa2"
// $im = the image that have to be computed

$red = hexdec(substr($colorize, 0, 2));
$green = hexdec(substr($colorize, 2, 2));
$blue = hexdec(substr($colorize, 4, 2));

$lum_c = floor(($red*299 + $green*587 + $blue*144) / 1000);

for (
$i = 0; $i < $lum_c; $i++)
{
 
$r = $red * $i / $lum_c;
 
$g = $green * $i / $lum_c;
 
$b = $blue * $i / $lum_c;
 
$pal[$i] = $r<<16 | $g<<8 | $b;
}
$pal[$lum_c] = $red<<16 | $green<<8 | $blue;
for (
$i = $lum_c+1; $i < 255; $i++)
{
 
$r = $red + (255-$red) * ($i-$lum_c) / (255-$lum_c);
 
$g = $green + (255-$green) * ($i-$lum_c) / (255-$lum_c);
 
$b = $blue + (255-$blue) * ($i-$lum_c) / (255-$lum_c);
 
$pal[$i] = $r<<16 | $g<<8 | $b;
}

$sy = imagesy($im);
$sx = imagesx($im);
for(
$y=0;$y<$sy;$y++)
{
  for(
$x=0;$x<$sx;$x++)
  {
   
$rgba = imagecolorat($im, $x, $y);
   
$a = ($rgba & 0x7F000000) >> 24;
   
$r = ($rgba & 0xFF0000) >> 16;
   
$g = ($rgba & 0x00FF00) >> 8;
   
$b = ($rgba & 0x0000FF);

   
$lum = floor(($r*299+$g*587+$b*144)/1000);

   
imagesetpixel($im, $x, $y, $a<<24 | $pal[$lum]);
  }
}
?>
egingell at sisna dot com
19-Oct-2006 08:19
<?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);
}

?>
feedback at realitymedias dot com
15-Oct-2006 10:47
This function can replace substr() in some situations you don't want to cut right in the middle of a word. strtrim will cut between words when it is possible choosing the closest possible final string len to return. the maxoverflow parameter lets you choose how many characters can overflow past the maxlen parameter.

<?php

function strtrim($str, $maxlen=100, $elli=NULL, $maxoverflow=15) {
    global
$CONF;
       
    if (
strlen($str) > $maxlen) {
           
        if (
$CONF["BODY_TRIM_METHOD_STRLEN"]) {
            return
substr($str, 0, $maxlen);
        }
           
       
$output = NULL;
       
$body = explode(" ", $str);
       
$body_count = count($body);
       
       
$i=0;
   
        do {
           
$output .= $body[$i]." ";
           
$thisLen = strlen($output);
           
$cycle = ($thisLen < $maxlen && $i < $body_count-1 && ($thisLen+strlen($body[$i+1])) < $maxlen+$maxoverflow?true:false);
           
$i++;
        } while (
$cycle);
        return
$output.$elli;
    }
    else return
$str;
}

?>
joseph dot morphy at gmail dot com
16-Aug-2006 02:31
<?php
//function to get a substring between between two other substrings

function substring_between($haystack,$start,$end) {
    if (
strpos($haystack,$start) === false || strpos($haystack,$end) === false) {
        return
false;
    } else {
       
$start_position = strpos($haystack,$start)+strlen($start);
       
$end_position = strpos($haystack,$end);
        return
substr($haystack,$start_position,$end_position-$start_position);
    }
}

//use of this function to get the title of an html document

$handle = fopen($filename, 'r');
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
fclose($handle);

$contents = htmlspecialchars($contents);
$title = substring_between($contents,'&lt;title&gt;','&lt;/title&gt;');

?>
shadzar
13-Feb-2006 11:21
a function to read in a file and split the string into its individual characters and display them as images for a webcounter.

can be used anywhere you need to split a string where a seperator is not present and versions where the str_split() function is also not present.

<?php
//start counter
$filename = "counter_file.txt";
$pathtoiamges = "http://www.yoursite.com/counter/";//where is your iamges
$extension = ".gif";//what filetype are your images in
//--------------do not change below this line-------------------
$counter=file_get_contents($filename);
$counter++;
$count=$counter;
$current=0;
$visit=array("");//array to hold individual characters
//split string into individual characters
//same as str_split($str) in PHP5
while (strlen($count)>0)
    {
   
$current++;
   
$visit[$current]=substr($count,0,1);//get current digit
   
$count=substr($count,1,strlen($count));//reduce number string to remove last stored digit
   
}
//display images of digits
foreach ($visit as $vis)
    {
    if (
$vis!=""){echo "<img src=\"". $pathtoimages . $vis . .$extension . "\">";}
    }
$list = fopen($filename, "w+");
fwrite($list, $counter);
fclose($list);
//end counter
?>

requires a file to store the counter and 10 images to represent the digits (0-9) if used as a counter.
wishie at gmail dot com
04-Feb-2006 12:37
Here's a function I wrote that'll insert a string into another string with an offset.

<?php
// $insertstring - the string you want to insert
// $intostring - the string you want to insert it into
// $offset - the offset

function str_insert($insertstring, $intostring, $offset) {
   
$part1 = substr($intostring, 0, $offset);
   
$part2 = substr($intostring, $offset);
   
   
$part1 = $part1 . $insertstring;
   
$whole = $part1 . $part2;
    return
$whole;
}
?>
Bradley from California
10-Jan-2006 07:34
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;
}
?>
eallik at hotmail dot com
05-Jan-2006 01:22
Be careful when comparing the return value of substr to FALSE. FALSE may be returned even if the output is a valid string.

substr("0", 0); // equals "0", comparision with FALSE evaluates to true, because "0" == 0 == FALSE
mr at bbp dot biz
14-Dec-2005 08:54
Here's a little addon to the html_substr function posted by fox.

Now it counts only chars outside of tags, and doesn't cut words.

Note: this will only work in xhtml strict/transitional due to the checking of "/>" tags and the requirement of quotations in every value of a tag. It's also only been tested with the presence of br, img, and a tags, but it should work with the presence of any tag.

<?php
function html_substr($posttext, $minimum_length = 200, $length_offset = 20, $cut_words = FALSE, $dots = TRUE) {
  
   
// $minimum_length:
    // The approximate length you want the concatenated text to be  
 

    // $length_offset:
    // The variation in how long the text can be in this example text
    // length will be between 200 and 200-20=180 characters and the
    // character where the last tag ends

    // Reset tag counter & quote checker
   
$tag_counter = 0;
   
$quotes_on = FALSE;
   
// Check if the text is too long
   
if (strlen($posttext) > $minimum_length) {
       
// Reset the tag_counter and pass through (part of) the entire text
       
$c = 0;
        for (
$i = 0; $i < strlen($posttext); $i++) {
           
// Load the current character and the next one
            // if the string has not arrived at the last character
           
$current_char = substr($posttext,$i,1);
            if (
$i < strlen($posttext) - 1) {
               
$next_char = substr($posttext,$i + 1,1);
            }
            else {
               
$next_char = "";
            }
           
// First check if quotes are on
           
if (!$quotes_on) {
               
// Check if it's a tag
                // On a "<" add 3 if it's an opening tag (like <a href...)
                // or add only 1 if it's an ending tag (like </a>)
               
if ($current_char == '<') {
                    if (
$next_char == '/') {
                       
$tag_counter += 1;
                    }
                    else {
                       
$tag_counter += 3;
                    }
                }
               
// Slash signifies an ending (like </a> or ... />)
                // substract 2
               
if ($current_char == '/' && $tag_counter <> 0) $tag_counter -= 2;
               
// On a ">" substract 1
               
if ($current_char == '>') $tag_counter -= 1;
               
// If quotes are encountered, start ignoring the tags
                // (for directory slashes)
               
if ($current_char == '"') $quotes_on = TRUE;
            }
            else {
               
// IF quotes are encountered again, turn it back off
               
if ($current_char == '"') $quotes_on = FALSE;
            }
          
           
// Count only the chars outside html tags
           
if($tag_counter == 2 || $tag_counter == 0){
               
$c++;
            }          
                          
           
// Check if the counter has reached the minimum length yet,
            // then wait for the tag_counter to become 0, and chop the string there
           
if ($c > $minimum_length - $length_offset && $tag_counter == 0 && ($next_char == ' ' || $cut_words == TRUE)) {
               
$posttext = substr($posttext,0,$i + 1);              
                if(
$dots){
                  
$posttext .= '...';
                }
                return
$posttext;
            }
        }
    }  
    return
$posttext;
}

?>
felipe at spdata dot com dot br
29-Nov-2005 10:48
JavaScript charAt PHP equivalent

<?php
   
function charAt($str, $pos)
    {
        return (
substr($str, $pos, 1)) ? substr($str, $pos, 1) : -1;
    }
?>

If found, return the charecter at the specified position, otherwise return -1
frank at jkelloggs dot dk
25-Jul-2005 07:37
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));
   }
}
?>
julius at infoguiden dot no
04-Jul-2005 04:23
This function shortens the string down to maximum lengt defined in $max_lengt. If the string is longer the function finds the last occurance of a space and adds three dots at the end to illustrate that it is more text. If the string is without spaces it stops at exacly max lengt, also adding three dots. If the string is shorter than max lengt it returns the string as it is. This is useful for previewing long strings.

<?php
function str_stop($string, $max_length){
    if (
strlen($string) > $max_length){
       
$string = substr($string, 0, $max_length);
       
$pos = strrpos($string, " ");
        if(
$pos === false) {
               return
substr($string, 0, $max_length)."...";
           }
        return
substr($string, 0, $pos)."...";
    }else{
        return
$string;
    }
}
?>
php_net at thomas dot trella dot de
29-Jun-2005 01:07
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;
}
?>
ivanhoe011 at gmail dot com
08-Jun-2005 01:31
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..
rob NOSPAM at clancentric dot net
07-Jun-2005 08:43
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).'...';
    }
}
?>
bleakwind at msn dot com
25-May-2005 03:11
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¶à×Ö½Ú123456×Ö·û´®123456½ØÈ¡º¯Êý";
for(
$i=0;$i<30;$i++){
    echo
"<br>".bite_str($str,$i,20);   
}
?>
fanfatal at fanfatal dot pl
17-May-2005 04:45
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 ;]
...
woutermb at gmail dot com
21-Mar-2005 05:19
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.. :)
steve at unicycle dot co dot nz
14-Mar-2005 03:34
To quickly trim an optional trailing slash off the end of a path name:

if (substr( $path, -1 ) == '/') $path = substr( $path, 0, -1 );
Matias from Argentina
24-Feb-2005 06:55
Hello,
Here you are a function to format your
numeric strings. Enjoy it.

<?php
function str_format_number($String, $Format){
    if (
$Format == '') return $String;
    if (
$String == '') return $String;

   
$Result = '';
   
$FormatPos = 0;
   
$StringPos = 0;
    While ((
strlen($Format) - 1) >= $FormatPos){
       
//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++;
    }

    return
$Result;
}

// For phone numbers at Buenos Aires, Argentina
// Example 1:
   
$String = "541143165500";
   
$Format = "+00 00 0000.000";
    Echo
str_format_number($String, $Format); // Returns "+54 11 4316.5500"

// Example 2:
   
$String = "541143165500";
   
$Format = "+00 00 0000.0000000";
    Echo
str_format_number($String, $Format); // Returns "+54 11 4316.5500"

// Example 3:
   
$String = "541143165500";
   
$Format = "+00 00 0000.000 a";
    Echo
str_format_number($String, $Format); // Returns "+54 11 4316.550 a"

?>

How it works explanation:

str_format_number($String, $Format)
Spects two parameters $String and $Format,
both should be strings.
$String: coulbe any kind of data type,
but it's oriented to numeric string, like
phone numbers.
$Format: should be a conjunction between
numbers (any one) and others caracters.

str_format_number takes each caracter
of $Format, if it isn't a number stores
it to be returned later, but if it is a
number takes the caracter of $String
placed in the position corresponding to
the amount of numbers in $Format so far
starting from zero.

If $Format has less numbers than $string
caracters the rest of the caracters at
the end of $String should be ignored.
If $Format has more numbers than $string
caracters the no caracter will be used,
so those will be ignored.
crashmanATgreenbomberDOTcom
22-Feb-2005 12:34
A fellow coder pointed out to me that $string{-n} will no longer return the character at postion -n is. Use $string{strlen($string) - n) instead.
andrewmclagan at gmail dot com
20-Feb-2005 07:58
Hi there here is a little function i wrote to limit the number of lines in a string, i could not find anything else like it out there   

<?php
function lineLimiter ($string = "", $max_lines = 1) {
   
        
$string = ereg_replace("\n", "##", $string);
   
        
$totalLines = (substr_count($string, '##') + 1);
   
        
$string = strrev($string);
   
        
$stringLength = strlen($string);
                    
         while (
$totalLines > $max_lines) {
            
$pos = 0;
            
$pos = strpos ( $string, "##") + 2;
            
//$pos = $pos - $stringLength;
            
$string = substr($string, $pos);
            
$totalLines--;   
         }
        
$string = strrev($string);
         
$string = ereg_replace("##", "\n", $string);
         return
$string;
    }
?>
vitalic#pisem.net
15-Dec-2004 09:26
Split $string after each $pos, by $space
Example: <?php spaceStr('1836254','-',3); ?>
Would return '183-625-4';

<?php
function spaceStr($string,$space,$pos)
{
      
$cpos=$pos;
       while (
$cpos<strlen($string))
       {
        
$string=substr($string,0,$cpos).$space.substr($string,$cpos);
        
$cpos+=strlen($space)+$pos;
       };
       return
$string;
}

?>
kovacsendre at no_spam_thanks_kfhik dot hungary
02-Nov-2004 01:38
Here are the replacement functions for substr() and strlen() I use when support for html entities is required:

<?php

function html_strlen($str) {
 
$chars = preg_split('/(&[^;\s]+;)|/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
  return
count($chars);
}

function
html_substr($str, $start, $length = NULL) {
  if (
$length === 0) return ""; //stop wasting our time ;)

  //check if we can simply use the built-in functions
 
if (strpos($str, '&') === false) { //No entities. Use built-in functions
   
if ($length === NULL)
      return
substr($str, $start);
    else
      return
substr($str, $start, $length);
  }

 
// create our array of characters and html entities
 
$chars = preg_split('/(&[^;\s]+;)|/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE | PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
 
$html_length = count($chars);

 
// check if we can predict the return value and save some processing time
 
if (
       (
$html_length === 0) /* input string was empty */ or
       (
$start >= $html_length) /* $start is longer than the input string */ or
       (isset(
$length) and ($length <= -$html_length)) /* all characters would be omitted */
    
)
    return
"";

 
//calculate start position
 
if ($start >= 0) {
   
$real_start = $chars[$start][1];
  } else {
//start'th character from the end of string
   
$start = max($start,-$html_length);
   
$real_start = $chars[$html_length+$start][1];
  }

  if (!isset(
$length)) // no $length argument passed, return all remaining characters
   
return substr($str, $real_start);
  else if (
$length > 0) { // copy $length chars
   
if ($start+$length >= $html_length) { // return all remaining characters
     
return substr($str, $real_start);
    } else {
//return $length characters
     
return substr($str, $real_start, $chars[max($start,0)+$length][1] - $real_start);
    }
  } else {
//negative $length. Omit $length characters from end
     
return substr($str, $real_start, $chars[$html_length+$length][1] - $real_start);
  }

}

?>

Example:
 
html_substr("&aacute;bla&#54;bla", 1, 4) -> "bla&#54;"

If you happen to find any bugs, please let me know.
lmak at NOSPAM dot iti dot gr
17-Aug-2004 04:59
Regarding windix's function to handle UTF-8 strings: one can use the "u" modifier on the regular expression so that the pattern string is treated as UTF-8 (available from PHP 4.1.0 or greater on Unix and from PHP 4.2.3 on win32). This way the function works for other encodings too (like Greek for example).

The modified function would read like this:

<?php
function utf8_substr($str,$start)
{
  
preg_match_all("/./u", $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));
   }
}
?>
biohazard at online dot ge
15-May-2004 06:55
may be by following functions will be easyer to extract the
needed sub parts from a string:

 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 '['
 

<?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));
    };

   
// USES
   
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);
    };

?>
phplist at boonedocks dot net
28-Aug-2003 06:39
If 'start' is negative and greater than the length of the string, PHP seems to return the first 'length' characters of the string. For example, substr('test',-10,1) returns 't'.
05-Jul-2003 10:39
If you want to substring the middle of a string with another and keep the words intact:

<?php
/**
 * Reduce a string by the middle, keeps whole words together
 *
 * @param string $string
 * @param int $max (default 50)
 * @param string $replacement (default [...])
 * @return string
 * @author david at ethinkn dot com
 * @author loic at xhtml dot ne
 * @author arne dot hartherz at gmx dot net
 */

function strMiddleReduceWordSensitive ($string, $max = 50, $rep = '[...]') {
   
$strlen = strlen($string);

    if (
$strlen <= $max)
        return
$string;

   
$lengthtokeep = $max - strlen($rep);
   
$start = 0;
   
$end = 0;

    if ((
$lengthtokeep % 2) == 0) {
       
$start = $lengthtokeep / 2;
       
$end = $start;
    } else {
       
$start = intval($lengthtokeep / 2);
       
$end = $start + 1;
    }

   
$i = $start;
   
$tmp_string = $string;
    while (
$i < $strlen) {
        if (
$tmp_string[$i] == ' ') {
           
$tmp_string = substr($tmp_string, 0, $i) . $rep;
           
$return = $tmp_string;
        }
       
$i++;
    }

   
$i = $end;
   
$tmp_string = strrev ($string);
    while (
$i < $strlen) {
        if (
$tmp_string[$i] == ' ') {
           
$tmp_string = substr($tmp_string, 0, $i);
           
$return .= strrev ($tmp_string);
        }
       
$i++;
    }
    return
$return;
    return
substr($string, 0, $start) . $rep . substr($string, - $end);
}

echo
strMiddleReduceWordSensitive ('ABCDEEF GHIJK LLKJHKHKJHKL HGHFK sdfasdfsdafsdf sadf asdf sadf sad s', 30) . "\n";
// Returns: ABCDEEF GHIJK[...]asdf sadf sad s (33 chrs)
echo strMiddleReduceWordSensitive ('ABCDEEF GHIJK LLKJHKHKJHKL HGHFK sdfasdfsdafsdf sadf asdf sadf sad s', 30, '...') . "\n";
// Returns: ABCDEEF GHIJK...asdf sadf sad s (32 chrs)
?>

trim> <substr_replace
Last updated: Fri, 06 Nov 2009
 
 
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