How to get first N characters in PHP?

Use substr($string, 0, N). Example: substr('Hello', 0, 3) returns 'Hel'.

How to get last N characters in PHP?

Use negative start: substr($string, -N). Example: substr('Hello', -2) returns 'lo'.

substr() returns false (PHP 7) or empty string (PHP 8) if start is beyond string length.

String Function PHP 4+

The substr() function extracts a portion of a string starting at a specified position.

substr(string $string, int $start, ?int $length = null): string

Parameter	Type	Description
`$string`	string	The input string
`$start`	int	Start position (0-based, negative from end)
`$length`	int\|null	Max characters to extract (optional)

Returns the extracted substring, or an empty string if start is beyond string length.

Output

Click Run to execute your code

<?php
$str = "Hello World";
echo substr($str, 0, 5);  // "Hello"
?>

<?php
$str = "Hello World";
echo substr($str, -5);    // "World"
?>

<?php
$str = "filename.txt";
echo substr($str, 0, -4); // "filename"
?>

Tip: For multibyte strings (UTF-8), use mb_substr() instead.