How to check if a String contains a Specific Character in PHP ?

In PHP, determining whether a string contains a specific character is a common task. Whether you’re validating user input, parsing data, or performing text processing, PHP provides several methods to check for the presence of a particular character within a string efficiently.

Example: Implementation to check if a string contains a specific character using the strpos( ) function

PHP

<?php
$string = "Hello, world!";
$char = "o";

// Using strpos() function
if (strpos($string, $char) !== false) {
    echo "The string contains the character '$char'.";
} else {
    echo "The string does not contain the character '$char'.";
}

?>

Output

The string contains the character 'o'.

Example: Implementation to check if a string contains a specific character using strstr( ) function.

PHP

<?php
$string = "Hello, world!";
$char = "o";

// Using strstr() function
if (strstr($string, $char) !== false) {
    echo "The string contains the character '$char'.";
} else {
    echo "The string does not contain the character '$char'.";
}
?>

Output

The string contains the character 'o'.

Difference between strops() and Strstr() Methods

strpos() Function	strstr() Function
Finds the position of the first occurrence of a substring within a string	Finds the first occurrence of a substring within a string and returns the portion of the string starting from that occurrence
Returns the position of the substring if found, otherwise returns a false	Returns the portion of the string starting from the first occurrence of the substring if found, otherwise returns a false
Suitable for checking the presence and position of a specific character	Useful when you need to extract a portion of the string starting from the first occurrence of a substring