First letter of a variable

[fizzwizz]

I have a variable
eg $var = bucket

I want another variable to return the first letter of $var
eg
$var2=b

How do I do this?

Thanks again

[drawmack]

<?php
$foo = "we eat meat on friday because we're heathens";
$bar = get_fisrst_letter($foo);

echo $foo . "<br />\n";
echo $bar . "<br />\n";

funstion get_first_letter($a) {
    return substr($a,0,1);
} //end get_first_letter
?>

output
we eat meat on friday because we're heathens
w

[Wynder]

echo $var[0];

You can treat normal variables like arrays and just grab the first element.

[fizzwizz]

Both above suggestions work great ... Thanks again

[laserlight]

Actually, the correct syntax for accessing the first character in strings is $var{0}

"$var[0]" is deprecated.

[Wynder]

So, is that depreciated just for pulling individual characters out of a string, or for arrays in general?

[philipolson]

[] syntax is deprecated with strings, not arrays, as having people use [] for both is a bit confusing. So, use {} with strings and [] with arrays. Odds are [] will always work with strings but maybe one day it won't.