Appendix B. Strings, Tools, and Techniques

This appendix lists string functions that you will use often while developing PHP programs. Not all of these are thread safe, and you should review the list before you choose how you will manipulate strings. As to the aliases, be careful which ones you use and be consistent in use. If you’re going to use the chop() function because you like the Perl tone of it, then don’t intermingle it with the PHP rtrim() function.

These functions let you create substrings, manipulate strings, or collect information to parse strings. The explode() and implode() functions are frequently found in example code accessing the MySQL database. Alternatives to using the explode() and implode() functions are found in Chapter 13. Table B-1 lists and describes the most common string functions, and it includes small example programs following the description and function.