How can i take only the first letter of a string

e.g.

absjskw

and take just the first letter, its gunna be a dynamic string as well!

The substr() function

http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.substr.php

PHP Code:

<?php
$rest = substr("abcdef", -1);    // returns "f"
$rest = substr("abcdef", -2);    // returns "ef"
$rest = substr("abcdef", -3, 1); // returns "d"
?>

So you would want:

PHP Code:

<?php
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 1);  // a
?>

how about an easyer method
$string='testString';
$firstLetter=$string[1];

Originally Posted by solomongaby

how about an easyer method
$string='testString';
$firstLetter=$string[1];

Not quite right
First letter would be 0

$firstLetter=$string[0];

right ... sorry my bad

Obviously there might be problems with that second way of doing things (in terms of dynamicity/dynamism), but it would work here.

what problems ?

All I meant was that, say, if you wanted to dynamically pick how many letter to take using substr() would be coded more easily (no loops etc), but the more I think about it, the smaller the difference seems to me to be. Sorry...

Originally Posted by maxxximus

Not quite right
First letter would be 0

$firstLetter=$string[0];

To yet add another insight, I think $firstLetter = $string{0}; would be a better choice since $string is not an array (I think the square brackets may issue a warning if I'm correct).