Find exact string inside a string

Use preg_match function

if (preg_match("/\bMures\b/i", $string)) {
    echo "OK.";
} else {
    echo "KO.";
}

You can do this with regex, and surrounding the word with \b word boundary

preg_match("~\bMures\b~",$string)

example:

$string = 'Maramures';
if ( preg_match("~\bMures\b~",$string) )
  echo "matched";
else
  echo "no match";

How do you check the result of strstr? Try this here:

$string = 'Maramures';
$search = 'Mures';
$contains = strstr(strtolower($string), strtolower($search)) !== false;

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