[RESOLVED] Finding a given string in another string

[lives4him06]

Given a random string

$str1= "hello my name is jeff i am somewhat new to programming and i am here trying to figure out the basics!! It has once been said that \"PHP is the best and easiest to use\" i am still trying to find this for myself";

how do i determine if this string contains the string:

$str2 = "said that";

?

[wilsonodk]

Use strstr or strpos.

According to the manual, you should always use strpos if you're just trying to find a needle in a haystack.

if (strpos($needle,$haystack)===false) {
    // Needle is NOT in the Haystack
} else {
    // Needle is in the Haystack
}

[thorpe]

if (strpos($str1,"said that")) {
  echo "found";
} else {
  echo "not found";
}

[lives4him06]

actually this code does not work for all cases.

 if (strstr($str1, $find)) 
{ 
  echo "found"; 
} 
else 
{ 
  echo "not found"; 
} 

is a better choice.

[bpat1434]

I see no difference....
Your question:

how do i determine if this string contains the string:
$str2 = "said that";

Thorpe's answer:

if (strpos($str1,"said that")) {
  echo "found";
} else {
  echo "not found";
} 

You wanted it generalized? Then your question should have been formed like:
[indent]I want to search for a string within a string, but the needle and haystack may be different at any point in time. How can I do this?[/indent]
That would get you an answer of:

if (strstr($str1, $find))
{
  echo "found";
}
else
{
  echo "not found";
}

Which is no different than just generalizing what Thorpe said....

~Brett

[lives4him06]

his worked great except when the substring began at the first character of the parents string, then it returned:

"not found"

So thank you very much to Thorpe for the help, but it was not EXACTLY what i needed.

It was the function used not whether or not a variable was used instead of a static. 😉