The mb_substr Function

The mb_substr function extracts and returns a substring from a string, correctly working with multibyte encodings (e.g., UTF-8). The first parameter is the string, the second is the starting position, the third (optional) is the substring length. The fourth parameter can specify the encoding.

Syntax

phpmb_substr(string, start, [length], [encoding]): string;

Example

Let's extract 3 characters from the string, starting from position 1:

php<?php
  $res = mb_substr('абвгд', 1, 3);
  echo $res;
?>

Code execution result:

php'бвг'

Example

Let's extract a substring to the end of the string from "日本語", starting from position 1:

php<?php
  $res = mb_substr('日本語', 1);
  echo $res;
?>

Code execution result:

php'本語'

Example

Let's extract a substring specifying the UTF-8 encoding:

php<?php
  $res = mb_substr('абвгд', 2, 2, 'UTF-8');
  echo $res;
?>

Code execution result:

php'вг'

See Also