PHP substr() Function

❮ PHP String Reference

Example

Return "world" from the string:

<?php
echo substr("Hello world",6);
?>

Try it Yourself »

Definition and Usage

The substr() function returns a part of a string.

Syntax

substr(string,start,length)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
string	Required. Specifies the string to return a part of
start	Required. Specifies where to start in the string A positive number - Start at a specified position in the string A negative number - Start at a specified position from the end of the string 0 - Start at the first character in string
length	Optional. Specifies the length of the returned string. Default is to the end of the string. A positive number - The length to be returned from the start parameter Negative number - The length to be returned from the end of the string If the length parameter is 0, NULL, or FALSE - it return an empty string

Technical Details

Return Value:	Returns the extracted part of a string, or FALSE on failure, or an empty string
PHP Version:	4+
Changelog:	PHP 7.0 - If string = start (in characters long), it will return an empty string. Earlier versions returns FALSE. PHP 5.2.2 - 5.2.6 - If start has the position of a negative truncation, FALSE is returned. Other versions get the string from start.

More Examples

Example

Using the start parameter with different positive and negative numbers:

<?php
echo substr("Hello world",10)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",1)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",3)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",7)." ";

echo substr("Hello world",-1)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",-10)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",-8)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",-4)." ";
?>

Try it Yourself »

Example

Using the start and length parameters with different positive and negative numbers:

<?php
echo substr("Hello world",0,10)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",1,8)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",0,5)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",6,6)." ";

echo substr("Hello world",0,-1)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",-10,-2)." ";
echo substr("Hello world",0,-6)." ";
?>

Try it Yourself »

❮ PHP String Reference