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