How to check if a string contains a substring in PHP?

From PHP 8 use str_contains(). It returns true or false. In older versions use strpos(), which returns the position of the match or false.

<?php
$text = "Hello world!";

var_dump(str_contains($text, "world"));
var_dump(strpos($text, "Hello"));
?>

Output:

Look at the second result. The word “Hello” is at position 0, and 0 is also treated as false in a normal comparison. This is the most common mistake with strpos(), so always compare with !==.

<?php
$text = "Hello world!";

if (strpos($text, "Hello") == false) {
    echo "Wrong: says not found<br>";
}

if (strpos($text, "Hello") !== false) {
    echo "Correct: found";
}
?>

Output:

Both functions are case-sensitive. Learn more in PHP strpos() Function.

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