substr_replace

Anon

Hi,

I'm quite new to this php world, so I wonder how can I substract only the letter "a" at the begining and letter "a" at the end of the word.

For example:
"atrail" should become "trail" and also
"traila" should become "trail"
Please note that I need how ever a letter "a" in the middle of the word. So str_replace() can't help. :-(

How can I do that effect. I just don't get it. I was looking & searching arround for a solution & nothing. & in my testings I get nothing but a bunch of errors. I think I'm gonna cry.

Can someone help & show me an example please.
Thanks.

Anon

Stop cry! ;-)
Surely this is not the better way, but it should work:
if ($string[0] == "a") $string = substr($string, 1);
if ($string[strlen($string)-1] == "a") $string = substr($string, 0, -1);

Ciao Paolo

Anon

Thank you Paolo
It's working as a bomb. Perfect. Exactly what I need. I thought there was someother command to do it in automatic. ;-) I was also thinking about if or switch but wasn't capable to substring anything. :-(

Do you know why this substr is giving me a pain?!!

$rest = substr ("abcdef", 1);

// returns "bcdef"
$rest = substr ("abcdef", 1, 3);
// returns "bcd"

// & this one is not returning "a" why?!!
$rest = substr ("abcdef", 0);
// it's returning abcdef instead and not "a"

I spent the whole evening with different solutions and still the manual says that I've done all okay:

If start is positive, the returned string will start at the start'th position in string, counting from zero. For instance, in the string 'abcdef', the character at position 0 is 'a', the character at position 2 is 'c', and so forth.

So, why is not displaying that "a" ?!! Am I missing here something or what?!!

So if I put it this way:

$rest3 = substr ("abcdef", 0, +1);

// Than works correctly. Crazy. ;-) My logic just can't reach that.

Grazie ancora Paolo. You saved a lot of nerves of mine. Thanx again.

Anon

Marco,

These examples you gave are correct.

$rest = substr ("abcdef", 1);
// returns "bcdef"
$rest = substr ("abcdef", 1, 3);
// returns "bcd"

// & this one is not returning "a" why?!!
$rest = substr ("abcdef", 0);

// it's returning abcdef instead and not "a"

To return just the "a", try:

$rest = substr("abcdef",0,1);

Translated this means: from the string "abcdef", start at position 0 (which is the first letter as the string counts starts with 0), and return 1 character.

Patricia