PHP String Functions Reference

How it works

Many traditional string functions work on bytes, even when a browser later displays the result as text. Use mbstring with an explicit encoding where its contract fits and a grapheme-aware API where visible editing boundaries require it. Literal replacement, regex replacement and output encoding are distinct tasks. A helper’s presence in the inventory is not permission to use a deprecated hash or encoding conversion in new security-sensitive code.

Run it locally

Run this complete source locally with PHP 8.2 or newer. Save it using the filename shown and run the command below. PHP is not currently available in Bhylu’s browser playground. Apache and MySQL are not needed for an ordinary CLI example.

php -l ref-text.php
php ref-text.php

Download this source as a local PHP lab file. Keep lab files separate from the Bhylu project and production data.

Example

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

$name = "  Hand drill  ";
$clean = trim($name);
echo str_starts_with($clean,"Hand") ? "Prefix matches\n" : "No prefix\n";
echo str_replace("drill","saw",$clean), "\n";

Expected result

Prefix matches
Hand saw

The boundary trim and literal replacement are separate steps. The original variable still holds the raw spaces. Neither result is automatically safe to insert into every output context, and this ASCII search does not establish a language-specific case or normalisation policy.

Contracts to check

Related API names

This alphabetic inventory helps locate related calls. Availability was checked in the review runtime; it is not a recommendation to use every API or a claim that every overload/function was executed. Read the official entry for version, extension, failure and security details.