PHP substr_count()Functions
Examples
Count the number of times "world" appears in the string:
<?php
echo substr_count("Hello world. The world is nice","world");
?>
echo substr_count("Hello world. The world is nice","world");
?>
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The substr_count() function counts the number of times a substring appears in a string.
Note:The substring is case-sensitive.
Note:The function does not count overlapping substrings (see Example 2).
Note:If the start parameter plus the length parameter is greater than the string length, the function generates a warning (see Example 3).
Syntax
substr_count(string,substring,start,length)
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| string | Required. Specifies the string to be checked. |
| substring | Required. Specifies the string to search for. |
| start | Optional. Specifies where in the string to start searching. |
| length | Optional. Specifies the length of the search. |
Technical Details
| Return value: | Returns the number of times the substring appears in the string. |
|---|---|
| PHP Version: | 4+ |
| Changelog: | In PHP 5.1, thestartandlengthparameters were added. |
More Examples
Example 1
Using all parameters:
<?php
$str = "This is nice";
echo strlen($str)."<br>"; // Using strlen() to return the string length
echo substr_count($str,"is")."<br>"; // The number of times "is" occurs in the string
echo substr_count($str,"is",2)."<br>"; // The string is now reduced to "is is PHP"
echo substr_count($str,"is",3)."<br>"; // The string is now reduced to "s is PHP"
echo substr_count($str,"is",3,3)."<br>"; // The string is now reduced to "s i"
?>
$str = "This is nice";
echo strlen($str)."<br>"; // Using strlen() to return the string length
echo substr_count($str,"is")."<br>"; // The number of times "is" occurs in the string
echo substr_count($str,"is",2)."<br>"; // The string is now reduced to "is is PHP"
echo substr_count($str,"is",3)."<br>"; // The string is now reduced to "s is PHP"
echo substr_count($str,"is",3,3)."<br>"; // The string is now reduced to "s i"
?>
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Example 2
Overlapping substrings:
<?php
$str = "abcabcab";
echo substr_count($str,"abcab"); // This function does not count overlapped substrings
?>
$str = "abcabcab";
echo substr_count($str,"abcab"); // This function does not count overlapped substrings
?>
Run example »
Example 3
If the start and length parameters exceed the string length, the function outputs a warning:
<?php
echo $str = "This is nice";
substr_count($str,"is",3,9);
?>
echo $str = "This is nice";
substr_count($str,"is",3,9);
?>
Because the length value exceeds the length of the string (3 + 9 is greater than 12), this will output a warning.
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