substr

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

substr返回字符串的子串

说明

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

返回字符串 stringstartlength 参数指定的子字符串。

参数

string

输入字符串。必须至少有一个字符。

start

如果 start 是非负数,返回的字符串将从 stringstart 位置开始,从 0 开始计算。例如,在字符串 "abcdef" 中,在位置 0 的字符是 "a",位置 2 的字符串是 "c" 等等。

如果 start 是负数,返回的字符串将从 string 结尾处向前数第 start 个字符开始。

如果 string 的长度小于 start,将返回 FALSE

Example #1 使用负数 start

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

length

如果提供了正数的 length,返回的字符串将从 start 处开始最多包括 length 个字符(取决于 string 的长度)。

如果提供了负数的 length,那么 string 末尾处的 length 个字符将会被省略(若 start 是负数则从字符串尾部算起)。如果 start 不在这段文本中,那么将返回 FALSE

如果提供了值为 0FALSENULLlength,那么将返回一个空字符串。

如果没有提供 length,返回的子字符串将从 start 位置开始直到字符串结尾。

Example #2 使用负数 length

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

返回值

返回提取的子字符串, 或者在失败时返回 FALSE

更新日志

版本 说明
7.0.0 如果 string 的字符串长度与 start 相同时将返回一个空字符串。在之前的版本中,这种情况将返回 FALSE
5.2.2 - 5.2.6 If the start parameter indicates the position of a negative truncation or beyond, false is returned. Other versions get the string from start.

范例

Example #3 substr() 基本用法

<?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

// 访问字符串中的单个字符
// 也可以使用中括号
$string 'abcdef';
echo 
$string[0];                 // a
echo $string[3];                 // d
echo $string[strlen($string)-1]; // f
?>

Example #4 substr() casting behaviour

<?php
class apple {
    public function 
__toString() {
        return 
"green";
    }
}

echo 
"1) ".var_export(substr("pear"02), true).PHP_EOL;
echo 
"2) ".var_export(substr(5432102), true).PHP_EOL;
echo 
"3) ".var_export(substr(new apple(), 02), true).PHP_EOL;
echo 
"4) ".var_export(substr(true01), true).PHP_EOL;
echo 
"5) ".var_export(substr(false01), true).PHP_EOL;
echo 
"6) ".var_export(substr(""01), true).PHP_EOL;
echo 
"7) ".var_export(substr(1.2e304), true).PHP_EOL;
?>

Output of the above example in PHP 7:

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

Output of the above example in PHP 5:

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

错误/异常

错误时返回 FALSE

<?php
var_dump
(substr('a'2)); // bool(false)
?>

参见

User Contributed Notes

Anonymous 15-Nov-2017 01:17
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)
kleeh at bellsouth dot net 09-May-2017 05:34
If I may, I'd like to add an example for a bit more clarification on the action of substr(). There's a note saying "If string is equal to start characters long, an empty string will be returned. Prior to this version, FALSE was returned in this case. ".
That description puzzled me until I worked it out. So, if your string is "x" and you do 'substr("x",0, 1)' then you'll get "x" as expected. Same thing for substr("x",0,4)' or any other LENGTH parm. But if the START parm is equal to the LENGTH of the string, then you'll get an empty string (PHP 7) or FALSE (prior to PHP 7). An example of this would be 'substr("x", 1, 1)' , which would return either an empty string or FALSE. Because your "x", which has a LENGTH of '1', is in the 0th position, so 'starting' your substr request at position 1 results in the empty string (or FALSE) because there is nothing after your "x" in this example. Just trying to mitigate some head-scratching over the phrasing of the previous note.
m.m.j.kronenburg 06-Sep-2016 10:46
<?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;
}

?>
Anonymous 27-Aug-2014 10:14
substr() exhibits rather unexpected behavior with respect to when it returns "" and when it returns FALSE.  Specifically, the following appears to hold (tested on PHP 5.4.19):

*  if $string is "", it always returns FALSE

*  if ($start >= 0) and ($start >= strlen($string)) it returns FALSE

*  if ($start >= 0) and ($length<($start - strlen($string))) it returns FALSE

*  if ($start < 0) then it returns FALSE if *and only if* $length<-strlen($string).

No other cases return FALSE.
Note that in the last case, the position indicated by $start doesn't actually matter!

Also worth noting is that if you supply a $start that is < -strlen($string), it will be treated exactly as if you had set $start = strlen($string).

Here are some test cases to illustrate this behavior:

substr("",0,0) === FALSE
substr("",0,4) === FALSE
substr("",-2,4) === FALSE

substr("abc",3,0) === FALSE
substr("abc",3,10) === FALSE
substr("abc",3,-1) === FALSE
substr("abc",0,-4) === FALSE
substr("abc",2,-2) === FALSE
substr("abc",-1,-4) === FALSE
substr("abc",-4,-4) === FALSE
substr("abc",-5,-4) === FALSE
substr("abc",-10,-5) === FALSE

substr("abc",-10,-2) === "a"
substr("abc",-1,-3) === ""
substr("abc",-1,-2) === ""
substr("abc",-2,-3) === ""
substr("abc",0,0) === ""
substr("abc",-3,0) === ""
substr("abc",-10,0) === ""
substr("abc",-3,4) === "abc"
substr("abc",-10,20) === "abc"
substr("abc",-2,-2) === ""
substr("abc",-2,1) === "b"
substr("abc",0,-3) === ""
substr("abc",2,-1) === ""
Nadeem 03-Jun-2014 08:16
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
?>
php at richardneill dot org 06-Apr-2014 03:25
Frequently we want to check whether one string ends with (or starts with) another.  These may be useful:

function str_ends($string,$end){
    return (substr($string,-strlen($end),strlen($end)) === $end);
}   
function str_begins($string,$start){
    return (substr($string,0,strlen($start)) === $start);
}   

Example:
if (str_ends ($filename, ".jpg")){
   echo "The extension is .jpg";
}
koczkahun at gmail dot com 17-Mar-2014 05:34
For those who cannot use mb_substr for any reasons, here is a solution for Unicode strings:

function substr_unicode($str, $s, $l = null)
{
    $r = '/^.{'.(int)$s.'}(.';
    $r .= ($l === null) ? '*)$' : '{'.(int)$l.'})';
    $r .= '/su';
    preg_match($r, $str, $o); return $o[1];
}

It is EXTREMELY fast compared to the array_slice + join method suggested before, and moderately slower than mb_substr.

Note: you cannot use negative values.
Note 2: use mb_substr whenever you can. Only use this workaround if you can not use the library.
fatihmertdogancan at hotmail dot com 26-Jan-2014 08:28
[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 bo?, step dolu o da +";
           
}else{
                return
strrev(substr($yeni,0,strlen($str)-1));
               
//"hepsi bo?, step dolu o da -";
           
}
        }
       
        if(empty(
$start) && empty($stop) && empty($step)){
            return
$str;
           
//"hepsi bo?";
       
}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 bo?, stop dolu"
               
}else{
                    return
strrev(substr($str,0,$stop));
                   
//"start ve step bo?, stop -1";
               
}
            }else if(isset(
$stop) && isset($step)){
               
$rev = "";
                if(
$stop[0] == "-"){$rev = "VAR";}
               
$yeni = "";
                if(
$step == 1){
                    if(
$rev != "VAR"){
                        return
$str;
                       
//"start bo?, stop ve step dolu, step 1";
                   
}else{
                        return
strrev(substr($str,0,abs($stop))); //abs -> mutlak de?er (-5 = 5)
                        //"start bo?, 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 bo?, step ve stop dolu";
                   
}else{
                        return
strrev(substr($yeni,0,abs($stop)));
                       
//"start bo?, step ve stop -";
                   
}
                }
            }
       
//start bo? de?ilse
       
}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 bo?, start ve stop dolu";
               
}else{
                    return
strrev(substr($str,0,abs($stop)));
                   
//"step bo?, 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..
greg at apparel dot com 20-Nov-2013 05:28
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);
}
fengdingbo at gmail dot com 19-Jul-2013 04:23
<?php    
$a
= 'abc';   
$php = 'ok123';   
$str = microtime(TRUE);   
for(
$i=0;$i<=1000000;$i++)    
   
$a = substr($php,1,1);   
echo
microtime(true)-$str,"\n";                                                                                                                 
$str = microtime(TRUE);   
for(
$i=0;$i<=1000000;$i++)    
   
$a = $php[1];   
echo
microtime(true)-$str;
?>
output:
0.26694822311401
0.10447096824646
biohazard dot ge at gmail dot com 15-Jul-2013 02:30
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);
};
?>
pugazhenthi k 18-Jan-2013 09:57
<?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;
}

?>
pheagey at gmail dot com 15-Jun-2012 02:27
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
leon weidauer 08-Jul-2011 01:07
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.
Quicker 06-May-2011 04:17
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
slow at acedsl dot com 28-Mar-2011 01:47
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
nikolai dot wuestemann at t-online dot de 14-Jan-2011 08:56
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
?>
Cristianlf 29-Oct-2010 02:10
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,
vnonov at gmail dot com / Viktor Nonov 28-Jan-2010 10:32
<?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');
?>
kaj dot strom at kapsi dot fi 05-Oct-2009 04:42
One thing to keep in mind when using string indexes and UTF-8 is that string indexes are NOT multi-byte safe.

<?php
$string
= '???1';
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 03:39
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
?>
kaysar in ymail in com 07-Jun-2009 11:58
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.. (^_^)
Andreas Bur (andreas dot buro at gmail dot com) 29-Apr-2009 06:25
For getting a substring of UTF-8 characters, I highly recommend mb_substr

<?php
        $utf8string
= "cake???";

        echo
substr($utf8string,0,5);
       
// output cake#
       
echo mb_substr($utf8string,0,5,'UTF-8');
       
//output cake?
?>
webmaster at oehoeboeroe dot nl 18-Apr-2009 02:07
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 = '';
?>
sajjad at sajjad dot biz 08-Apr-2009 12:28
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 05:52
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 20-Mar-2009 07:19
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;
    }
}
?>
mar dot czapla at gmail dot com 24-Oct-2008 02:31
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 10:01
Simple use of substr to determine possession:

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

// Davis => Davis'
// Paul => Paul's
?>
post [at] jannik - zappe [dot] de 05-Aug-2008 07:59
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 ;)
Anonymous 17-Mar-2008 03:53
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 05:21
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;
}
?>
highstrike at gmail dot com 05-Jan-2008 08:47
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 10:55
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;
    }
  }
?>
Petez 31-Aug-2007 03:56
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.
ijavier aka(not imatech) igjav 14-Feb-2007 02:20
<?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 07:45
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 03:19
<?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 05:47
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;
}

?>
Bradley from California 10-Jan-2006 01:34
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;
}
?>
frank at jkelloggs dot dk 25-Jul-2005 02:37
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));
   }
}
?>
php_net at thomas dot trella dot de 29-Jun-2005 08:07
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 07-Jun-2005 08:31
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 03:43
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 10:11
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?????123456?????123456???????";
for(
$i=0;$i<30;$i++){
    echo
"<br>".bite_str($str,$i,20);   
}
?>
fanfatal at fanfatal dot pl 16-May-2005 11:45
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 11:19
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 13-Mar-2005 09:34
To quickly trim an optional trailing slash off the end of a path name:

if (substr( $path, -1 ) == '/') $path = substr( $path, 0, -1 );
05-Jul-2003 05:39
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)
?>