How to get the first character of string in PHP

To get the first character of string in PHP, you can use a built in function i.e. substr(). But if you have special character in your string then it'll show a black question mark or other symbol rather than to show that special character as an output. 

For example:

<?php
$get_var = 'Äero hello';
 
$my_frst_char = substr($get_var, 0, 1);
 
echo $my_frst_char;
?>

Output:

So this function is not always useful in this type of cases. Now to get first character can use another function string function which is also a built-in function i.e. mb_substr() function.

There are four parameters used in this funtion.

mb_substr($string, $string_start, $string_length, $string_encode)

1. $string:  The string where the character is to extract.

2. $string_start: get or start from the position of string

3. $string_length: Length of chracters you want to show

4. $string_encode: Use to encode the character

<?php
$get_var = 'Äero hello';
 
$my_frst_char = mb_substr($get_var, 0, 1, "UTF-8");
 
echo $my_frst_char;
?>

You can also change the character length:

<?php
$get_var = 'Äero hello';
 
$my_frst_char = mb_substr($get_var, 0, 2, "UTF-8");
 
echo $my_frst_char;
?>

Also you can get the character from different position:-

<?php
$get_var = 'Äero hello';
 
$my_frst_char = mb_substr($get_var, 5, 2, "UTF-8");
 
echo $my_frst_char;
?>