PHP Slicing Strings

You can extract a portion of a string by using the substr() function.

Specify the start index and the number of characters you want to return.

Syntax:

substr(string $string, int $start, int $length = ?);

$string: The input string.

$start: The starting position to slice. A positive number counts from the beginning (0-indexed). A negative number counts from the end of the string.

$length (optional): The length of the substring to extract. If not provided, it extracts from $start to the end of the string. A negative value of $length will exclude characters from the end.

Slice to the End

By leaving out the length parameter, the range will go to the end:

Slice From the End

Use negative indexes to start the slice from the end of the string:

Negative Length

When you pass a negative length value, it will exclude that many characters from the end of the string:

In this case:

• 0 means start from the beginning of the string.
• -6 means exclude the last 6 characters, so "Hello, " is returned.