Test if String Starts With Certain Characters in PHP

We can test if a certain string is the exact start of another string:

<?php function startsWith($string, $startString) { $len = strlen($startString); return (substr($string, 0, $len) === $startString); } // usage echo startsWith("cat", "c"); // true echo startsWith("dog", "x"); // false ?> 

Testing the position in the string, making sure it’s at 0, works too:

function startsWith($string, $startString) { return strpos($string, $startString) === 0; }

The strncmp function is also directly for this purpose:

function startsWith($string, $startString) { return strncmp($string, $startString, strlen($startString)) === 0; }

You can always RegEx too!

function startsWith($string, $startString) { return preg_match('#^' . $startString . '#', $string) === 1; }