Extracting char from a string

[dcjones]

Hi all,

I have a field in a table which contains 5 %, this could be any percentage but will always have a space and the percent sign at the end.

I am trying to place the content into a variable without the space or the % sign.

At the moment if I say:

$percentage = // the content of the field

$var = substr($percentage, -2);

The output is %.

How can I get the output to be 5.

[Installer]

$var = rtrim($percentage, ' %');

[dagon]

$var = substr($percentage,0);

or

$var= $percentage[0]

[laserlight]

The correct fix to your original code is:

$var = substr($percentage, 0, -2);

However, Installer's example expresses your intent more clearly, so I would recommend it. Unfortunately, both dagon's examples are wrong since the former simply returns the entire string and the latter does not account for percentages of more than one digit.

[Installer]

The main reason I recommend rtrim() is that "will always" frequently morphs into "will sometimes" and from there it's a short trip to "will never". This may be even more likely in this case given that the predominant style is not to include a space between the number and the percent sign. [rtim('5 %', ' %') and rtrim('5%', ' %') both yield "5".]

[bradgrafelman]

Is this '5 %' value used anywhere else, e.g. in a calculation?

If so, it sounds like it'd be a lot easier to just store '0.05' and format it according to your needs.