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str_starts_with

(PHP 8)

str_starts_with — Checks if a string starts with a given substring

Description

str_starts_with(string $haystack, string $needle): bool

Performs a case-sensitive check indicating if haystack begins with needle.

Parameters

haystack

The string to search in.

needle

The substring to search for in the haystack.

Return Values

Returns true if haystack begins with needle, false otherwise.

Examples

Example #1 Using the empty string ''

<?php
if (str_starts_with('abc', '')) {
    echo "All strings start with the empty string";
}
?>

The above example will output:

All strings start with the empty string

Example #2 Showing case-sensitivity

<?php
$string = 'The lazy fox jumped over the fence';

if (str_starts_with($string, 'The')) {
    echo "The string starts with 'The'\n";
}

if (str_starts_with($string, 'the')) {
    echo 'The string starts with "the"';
} else {
    echo '"the" was not found because the case does not match';
}

?>

The above example will output:

The string starts with 'The'
"the" was not found because the case does not match

Notes

Note: This function is binary-safe.

See Also

  • str_contains() - Determine if a string contains a given substring
  • str_ends_with() - Checks if a string ends with a given substring
  • stripos() - Find the position of the first occurrence of a case-insensitive substring in a string
  • strrpos() - Find the position of the last occurrence of a substring in a string
  • strripos() - Find the position of the last occurrence of a case-insensitive substring in a string
  • strstr() - Find the first occurrence of a string
  • strpbrk() - Search a string for any of a set of characters
  • substr() - Return part of a string
  • preg_match() - Perform a regular expression match

© 1997–2025 The PHP Documentation Group
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License v3.0 or later.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.str-starts-with.php