Description
string 
substr ( string string, int start [, int length] )
     substr() returns the portion of string
     specified by the start and
     length parameters.
    
     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.
    
| Example 1. Basic substr() usage | 
<?phpecho substr('abcdef', 1);     // bcdef
 echo substr('abcdef', 1, 3);  // bcd
 echo substr('abcdef', 0, 4);  // abcd
 echo substr('abcdef', 0, 8);  // abcdef
 echo substr('abcdef', -1, 1); // f
 
 // Accessing single characters in a string
 // can also be achived using "curly braces"
 $string = 'abcdef';
 echo $string{0};                 // a
 echo $string{3};                 // d
 echo $string{strlen($string)-1}; // f
 
 ?>
 | 
 | 
     If start is negative, the returned string
     will start at the start'th character
     from the end of string.
    
| Example 2. Using a negative start | 
<?php$rest = substr("abcdef", -1);    // returns "f"
 $rest = substr("abcdef", -2);    // returns "ef"
 $rest = substr("abcdef", -3, 1); // returns "d"
 ?>
 | 
 | 
     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 string is less
     than or equal to start characters long, FALSE
     will be returned.
    
     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.
    
| Example 3. 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"
 ?>
 | 
 | 
     See also strrchr(),
     substr_replace(),
     ereg(),
     trim(),
     mb_substr() and
     wordwrap().