How to check a string starts/ends with a specific string in PHP ?

Last Updated : 24 Jun, 2021

In this article, we are going to learn how to check that a given string is starting or ending with a given specific string in PHP.

We require the use of XAMPP, Netbeans to run this code.

Input: "Geeks For Geeks"
Starting with: "G"
Output: "Geeks For Geeks Starts with String G"

In PHP version 8+, there are str_starts_with(), str_ends_with() functions which take two arguments one as, original string, the second as a string to be checked.

We will learn, how to check string starts/ends with a specific string.

Approach:

We will create a basic HTML form to input two strings, the main string, and the string to be checked.
We will validate the inputs using the str_starts_with(), str_ends_with() functions.

PHP code: Create a file “index.php” and write the following PHP code.

PHP

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<?php 
$msg = ""; 
error_reporting(0); 
   
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) { 
       
    if ($_POST['stringSearchType'] == 0) 
    { 
        if ((str_starts_with($_POST['mainString'],  
                strtoupper($_POST['checkString'])))  
            || (str_starts_with($_POST['mainString'],  
                strtolower($_POST['checkString']))) 
            || (str_starts_with($_POST['mainString'],  
                $_POST['checkString'])))  
        { 
            $msg = "The Given string [$_POST[mainString]]  
                    Starts with [$_POST[checkString]]"; 
        } else { 
            $msg = "The Given string [$_POST[mainString]]  
                  do not Starts with [$_POST[checkString]]"; 
        } 
    } else if ($_POST['stringSearchType']) { 
        if ((str_ends_with($_POST['mainString'],  
                strtoupper($_POST['checkString'])))  
            || (str_ends_with($_POST['mainString'],  
                strtolower($_POST['checkString'])))  
            ||  (str_ends_with($_POST['mainString'],  
                $_POST['checkString']))) 
        { 
            $msg = "The Given string [$_POST[mainString]]  
                    ends with [$_POST[checkString]]"; 
        } else
        { 
            $msg = "The Given string [$_POST[mainString]]  
                    do not ends with [$_POST[checkString]]"; 
        } 
    } 
} 
               
?> 
<html> 
  
<body> 
    <form action="index.php" method="POST"> 
        <p>Input Main String</p> 
  
        <input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="mainString" 
            placeholder="Eg. Geeks for Geeks" required="true"> 
        <p>Input String to be Checked</p> 
  
        <input type="text" autocomplete="off" name="checkString" 
            placeholder="Eg. Geek" required="true"><br> 
        <select name="stringSearchType"> 
            <option value=0>Starts With</option> 
            <option value=1>Ends With</option> 
        </select><br> 
        <hr> 
        <input type="submit" name="submit"> 
    </form> 
    <h2 style="color:green"> 
        <?php 
            if ($msg) { 
                echo $msg; 
            }           
        ?> 
    </h2> 
</body> 
  
</html> 

Input:

Input: Geeks For Geeks
String To be Checked: Geek
Type: Starts With
 
Input: Geeks For Geeks
String To be Checked: s
Type: Ends With
 
Input: Geeks For Geeks
String To be Checked: For
Type: Starts With

Output: