PHP String strchr() Function

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The PHP String strchr() function is a built-in method which is used to find the first occurrence of a given string (say searchStr) in another string (say actualStr) and returns the remainder of the string from actualStr beginning with the first occurrence of searchStr in actualStr. Note that the strchr() method is case sensitive.

Syntax

Below is the syntax of the PHP String strchr() function −

strchr ( $actualStr, $searchStr, $beforeSearch )

Parameters

Here are the parameters of the strchr() function −

• $actualStr − (Required) This argument defines the string in which the term will be searched.

• $searchStr − (Required) It specifies the word to be searched in the given $actualStr. It can be a character or a number; if a number is passed, it looks for the equivalent ASCII value character in the $actualStr.

• $beforeSearch − (Optional) When set to True, it returns the portion of $actualStr preceding the first occurrence of $searchStr. The default value is false.

Return Value

The strchr() function returns the remainder of the string (from the matching point), or FALSE if the string to be searched for was not found.

PHP Version

First introduced in core PHP 4, the strchr() function continues to function easily in PHP 5, PHP 7, and PHP 8.

Example 1

This program shows the basic example of the PHP String strchr() function to find the first occurrence of a specific character in the given string.

<?php
   $string = "Hello, World!";
   $search = "o";

   $result = strchr($string, $search);

   if ($result) {
      echo "The string starting from '$search' is: $result";
   } else {
      echo "'$search' not found in the string.";
   }
?>

Output

Here is the outcome of the following code −

The string starting from 'o' is: o, World!

Example 2

In the below PHP code we will try to use the strchr() function and also provide the optional parameter StringINFO_HTTP_CODE.

<?php
   $string = "PHP is fun!";
   
   // ASCII value of 'i'
   $asciiValue = 105; 

   $result = strchr($string, $asciiValue);

   if ($result) {
      echo "Starting from the character with ASCII value $asciiValue is: $result";
   } else {
      echo "Character not found.";
   }
?> 

Output

This will generate the below output −

Starting from the character with ASCII value 105 is: is fun!

Example 3

This program shows how to use the beforeSearch argument in the strchr() function to return the text that appears before the search value for the first time.

<?php
   $string = "Learn PHP programming.";
   $search = "P";

   $result = strchr($string, $search, true);

   if ($result) {
      echo "The string before '$search' is: $result";
   } else {
      echo "'$search' not found in the string.";
   }
?> 

Output

This will create the below output −

The string before 'P' is: Learn

Example 4

This example shows how strchr() function is case-sensitive and compares it to a case-insensitive function.

<?php
   $string = "Welcome to PHP World!";
   $search = "p";

   $result_case_sensitive = strchr($string, $search);
   $result_case_insensitive = stristr($string, $search);

   echo "Case-sensitive result: " . ($result_case_sensitive ?: "Not found") . "\n";
   echo "Case-insensitive result: " . ($result_case_insensitive ?: "Not found");
?> 

Output

Following is the output of the above code −

Case-sensitive result: Not found  
Case-insensitive result: PHP World!