stristr

    (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    stristr — Case-insensitive strstr()

    Description

    stristr(string $haystack, string $needle, bool $before_needle = false): string|false

    Returns all of haystack starting from and including the first occurrence of needle to the end.

    Parameters

    haystack

    The string to search in

    needle

    The string to search for.

    Prior to PHP 8.0.0, if needle is not a string, it is converted to an integer and applied as the ordinal value of a character. This behavior is deprecated as of PHP 7.3.0, and relying on it is highly discouraged. Depending on the intended behavior, the needle should either be explicitly cast to string, or an explicit call to chr() should be performed.

    before_needle

    If true, stristr() returns the part of the haystack before the first occurrence of the needle (excluding needle).

    needle and haystack are examined in a case-insensitive manner.

    Return Values

    Returns the matched substring. If needle is not found, returns false.

    Changelog

    Version Description
    8.2.0 Case folding no longer depends on the locale set with setlocale(). Only ASCII case folding will be done. Non-ASCII bytes will be compared by their byte value.
    8.0.0 needle now accepts an empty string.
    8.0.0 Passing an int as needle is no longer supported.
    7.3.0 Passing an int as needle has been deprecated.

    Examples

    Example #1 stristr() example

    <?php
    $email     = '[email protected]';
    echo     stristr($email, 'e'); // outputs [email protected]
    echo stristr($email, 'e', true); // outputs US
    ?>

    Example #2 Testing if a string is found or not

    <?php
    $string     = 'Hello World!';
    if(    stristr($string, 'earth') === FALSE) {
    echo     '"earth" not found in string';
    }
    // outputs: "earth" not found in string
    ?>

    Example #3 Using a non "string" needle

    <?php
    $string     = 'APPLE';
    echo     stristr($string, 97); // 97 = lowercase a
    // outputs: APPLE
    ?>

    Notes

    Note: This function is binary-safe.

    See Also

    • strstr() - Find the first occurrence of a string
    • strrchr() - Find the last occurrence of a character in a string
    • stripos() - Find the position of the first occurrence of a case-insensitive substring in a string
    • strpbrk() - Search a string for any of a set of characters
    • preg_match() - Perform a regular expression match

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    User Contributed Notes 8 notes

    up
    16
    dpatton.at.confluence.org
    21 years ago
    There was a change in PHP 4.2.3 that can cause a warning message
    to be generated when using stristr(), even though no message was
    generated in older versions of PHP.

    The following will generate a warning message in 4.0.6 and 4.2.3:
    stristr("haystack", "");
    OR
    $needle = ""; stristr("haystack", $needle);

    This will _not_ generate an "Empty Delimiter" warning message in
    4.0.6, but _will_ in 4.2.3:
    unset($needle); stristr("haystack", $needle);

    Here's a URL that documents what was changed:
    http://groups.google.ca/groups?selm=cvshholzgra1031224321%40cvsserver
    up
    7
    giz at gbdesign dot net
    16 years ago
    Just been caught out by stristr trying to converting the needle from an Int to an ASCII value.

    Got round this by casting the value to a string.

    <?php
    if( !stristr( $file, (string) $myCustomer->getCustomerID() ) ) {
    // Permission denied
    }
    ?>
    up
    3
    Techdeck at Techdeck dot org
    21 years ago
    An example for the stristr() function:

    <?php
    $a     = "I like php";
    if (    stristr("$a", "LikE PhP")) {
    print (    "According to \$a, you like PHP.");
    }
    ?>

    It will look in $a for "like php" (NOT case sensetive. though, strstr() is case-sensetive).

    For the ones of you who uses linux.. It is similiar to the "grep" command.
    Actually.. "grep -i".
    up
    -1
    notepad at codewalkers dot com
    19 years ago
    <?php

    function stristr_reverse($haystack, $needle) {
    $pos = stripos($haystack, $needle) + strlen($needle);
    return     substr($haystack, 0, $pos);
    }
    $email = '[email protected]';
    echo     stristr_reverse($email, 'er');
    // outputs USER

    ?>
    up
    -3
    jukka
    10 years ago
    I think there is a bug in php 5.3 in stristr with uppercase Ä containing other character

    http://pastebin.com/5bP6uztY

    if you search only with täry it works, but as soon as the word is tärylä it does not. TÄRYL works fine
    up
    -10
    tomas dot nesrovnal at yourspirit dot cz
    15 years ago
    Active item item in menu:

    <?php
    function aim($page) {
    if(    stristr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], $page)) {
    return     ' class="active"';
    }
    }
    ?>

    usage:

    <style type="text/css">
    .active {color: red;}
    </style>

    <?php
    print '<a href="http://example.com/page/hello-world/"'. aim('hello-world') .'>HW</a>';
    ?>
    up
    -8
    art at awilton dot dotcom
    18 years ago
    handy little bit of code I wrote to take arguments from the command line and parse them for use in my apps.

    <?php

    $i     = implode(" ",$argv); //implode all the settings sent via clie
    $e = explode("-",$i); // no lets explode it using our defined seperator '-'

    //now lets parse the array and return the parameter name and its setting
    // since the input is being sent by the user via the command line
    //we will use stristr since we don't care about case sensitivity and
    //will convert them as needed later.

    while (list($index,$value) = each($e)){

    //lets grap the parameter name first using a double reverse string
    // to get the begining of the string in the array then reverse it again
    // to set it back. we will also "trim" off the "=" sign

    $param = rtrim(strrev(stristr(strrev($value),'=')),"=");

    //now lets get what the parameter is set to.
    // again "trimming" off the = sign

    $setting = ltrim(stristr($value,'='),"=");

    // now do something with our results.
    // let's just echo them out so we can see that everything is working

    echo "Array index is ".$index." and value is ".$value."\r\n";
    echo     "Parameter is ".$param." and is set to ".$setting."\r\n\r\n";

    }

    ?>

    when run from the CLI this script returns the following.

    [root@fedora4 ~]# php a.php -val1=one -val2=two -val3=three

    Array index is 0 and value is a.php
    Parameter is and is set to

    Array index is 1 and value is val1=one
    Parameter is val1 and is set to one

    Array index is 2 and value is val2=two
    Parameter is val2 and is set to two

    Array index is 3 and value is val3=three
    Parameter is val3 and is set to three

    [root@fedora4 ~]#
    up
    -14
    greg at no_ggmac_reply dot com
    13 years ago
    Beware the example given here:

    if stristr($message,'viagra')
    or stristr($message,'cialis')
    )
    {
    die();
    }

    stristr does not search for words, it finds matching substrings. So, for example, the check for 'cialis' will trigger on 'specialist'
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