get first charctor in string php code example

Example 1: php get first 5 characters of string

$result = substr("Hello How are you", 0, 5); //first 5 chars "Hello"

Example 2: first name of string php

$words = explode(" ", $string);

$firstname = $words[0];
$lastname = $words[1];
$third_word = $words[2];