How can I check if a word is contained in another string using PHP?

Question

Pseudo Code

text = "I go to school";
word = "to"
if ( word.exist(text) ) {
    return true ;
else {
    return false ;
}

I am looking for a PHP function which returns true if the word exists in the text.

possible duplicate of How to check if a string contains specific words? — mawburn
– mawburn, Commented Jul 17, 2014 at 23:50
You might find s($text)->contains($word) or s($text)->containsIgnoreCase($word) helpful, as found in this standalone library. — caw
– caw, Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 0:24

BugHunterUK · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-27 00:32:11Z

116

You have a few options depending on your needs. For this simple example, strpos() is probably the simplest and most direct function to use. If you need to do something with the result, you may prefer strstr() or preg_match(). If you need to use a complex pattern instead of a string as your needle, you'll want preg_match().

$needle = "to";
$haystack = "I go to school";

strpos() and stripos() method (stripos() is case insensitive):

if (strpos($haystack, $needle) !== false) echo "Found!";

strstr() and stristr() method (stristr is case insensitive):

if (strstr($haystack, $needle)) echo "Found!";

preg_match method (regular expressions, much more flexible but runs slower):

if (preg_match("/to/", $haystack)) echo "Found!";

Because you asked for a complete function, this is how you'd put that together (with default values for needle and haystack):

function match_my_string($needle = 'to', $haystack = 'I go to school') {
  if (strpos($haystack, $needle) !== false) return true;
  else return false;
}

PHP 8.0.0 now contains a str_contains function that works like so:

if (str_contains($haystack, $needle)) {
    echo "Found";
}

edited Nov 27, 2020 at 0:32

BugHunterUK

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answered Jun 19, 2009 at 17:57

pix0r

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2 Comments

Josh Over a year ago

Non php'ers (like myself) note the double-equals in !== false because strpos() may return 0 if a match is found right at the beginning of the string (character position zero).

Nico Over a year ago

couldn't you just do return (strpos($haystack, $needle) !== false);? It has the exact same result, just a cleaner code

Steve Clay · Accepted Answer · 2009-06-19 22:52:30Z

21

function hasWord($word, $txt) {
    $patt = "/(?:^|[^a-zA-Z])" . preg_quote($word, '/') . "(?:$|[^a-zA-Z])/i";
    return preg_match($patt, $txt);
}

If $word is "to", this will match:

"Listen to Me"
"To the moon"
"up-to-the-minute"

but not:

"Together"
"Into space"

answered Jun 19, 2009 at 22:52

Steve Clay

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1 Comment

Saket Over a year ago

Perfect solution, as strpos() returns true even if it matches a part of string instead of whole word. Example: $haystack="check that fork"; $needle="for"; Now in this case, strpos() will find a match and return true. But peg_match() won't find 'for' word in the haystack, it will return 0.

Itay Moav -Malimovka · Accepted Answer · 2009-06-19 17:58:36Z

15

use:

return (strpos($text,$word) !== false); //case-sensitive

or

return (stripos($text,$word) !== false); //case-insensitive

edited Jun 19, 2009 at 17:58

Itay Moav -Malimovka

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answered Jun 19, 2009 at 17:46

Jonathan Fingland

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Comments

jitter · Accepted Answer · 2009-06-19 17:44:52Z

5

strpos

<?php
$text = "I go to school";
$word = "to"
$pos = strpos($text, $word);

if ($pos === false) {
    return false;
} else {
    return true;
}
?>

answered Jun 19, 2009 at 17:44

jitter

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Comments

Eineki · Accepted Answer · 2009-06-19 18:06:02Z

3

$text="I go to school";
return (strpos($text, 'to')!== false);

The manual page you need to find the correct usage of strpos

edited Jun 19, 2009 at 18:06

answered Jun 19, 2009 at 17:45

Eineki

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Comments

ylebre · Accepted Answer · 2009-06-19 17:47:19Z

1

Another way (besides the strpos examples already given is to use the 'strstr' function:

if (strstr($haystack, $needle)) {
   return true;
} else {
   return false;
}

answered Jun 19, 2009 at 17:47

ylebre

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Comments

manish1706 · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-15 12:05:45Z

1

You can use these string functions,

strstr — Find the first occurrence of a string

stristr — Case-insensitive strstr()

strrchr — Find the last occurrence of a character in a string

strpos — Find the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a string

strpbrk — Search a string for any of a set of characters

If that doesn't help then you should use preg regular expression

preg_match — Perform a regular expression match

answered Mar 15, 2017 at 12:05

manish1706

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Comments

Arshid KV · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-05 06:10:46Z

1

PHP 8 New Function str_contains

if (str_contains('Foo Bar Baz', 'Foo')) {
  echo 'Found';
}

OR

Use strpos function in php .

$text = "I go to school";
$word = "to"
if (strpos($text,$word) !== false ) {
    echo 'true';
}

edited Jul 5, 2020 at 6:10

answered Aug 27, 2015 at 17:03

Arshid KV

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