strCharAt

If I remember correctly their was a string function in C that allowed my to
target a particular element in a string so that I could verify it's
authenticity. I think it was
strCharAt();

I would like to check the first element of a string:
$myString = 'asdf';
How can I check the first letter of this string?

Using regex expressions I can check the first letter here
$data = 'a';
$firstletter = eregi("^[a-z]{1}$",$data);

but this will fail:
$data = 'aasdf';
$firstletter = eregi("^[a-z]{1}$",$data);
if(!$firstletter){
echo "first char is a number";
}else{
echo 'char is a letter';
}
will always return "first char is a number";

$data = 'a';
$firstletter = eregi("^[a-z]{1}$",$data);
if(!$firstletter){
echo "first char is a number";
}else{
echo 'char is a letter';
}
will always return 'char is a letter';

So what DO I USE IN PHP TO CHECK the first char or any char of a string
literal?

insight would be greatly appreciated
thank you
Kevin

"Kevin Raleigh" <kraleigh@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:V_WdnVvOd_F4bxDbnZ2dnUVZ_i2dnZ2d@giganews.com ...
> If I remember correctly their was a string function in C that allowed my
> to
> target a particular element in a string so that I could verify it's
> authenticity. I think it was
> strCharAt();

<SNIP>

> So what DO I USE IN PHP TO CHECK the first char or any char of a string
> literal?
>

substr()

echo 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

..oO(Kevin Raleigh)

>If I remember correctly their was a string function in C that allowed my to
>target a particular element in a string so that I could verify it's
>authenticity. I think it was
>strCharAt();
>
>I would like to check the first element of a string:
>$myString = 'asdf';
>How can I check the first letter of this string?

Use an array-like syntax to access each char in a string:

$myString[0]; // first char 'a'
$myString[3]; // last char 'f'

Then for further checking the character type functions might be of
interest.

XVII. Character Type Functions
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.ctype.php

Micha