php if field is certain number characters code example

Example 1: php get first character of string

$firstStringCharacter = substr("hello", 0, 1);

Example 2: php trim string to length

<?php
echo substr('abcdef', 1);     // bcdef
echo substr('abcdef', 1, 3);  // bcd
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 4);  // abcd
echo substr('abcdef', 0, 8);  // abcdef
echo substr('abcdef', -1, 1); // f

// Accessing single characters in a string
// can also be achieved using "square brackets"
$string = 'abcdef';