PHP 8 reference · Multibyte String Functions

PHP mb_strpos() Function

Find the character position of the first occurrence of a substring in a multibyte string. Returns false if not found.

Create a free account to save this page, take notes and track your progress. Sign in

Syntax

mb_strpos(string $haystack, string $needle, int $offset = 0, ?string $encoding = null): int|false

Parameter	Description
`haystack`	The string to search in.
`needle`	The string to find.
`offset` optional	The character position to start from. Default: `0`
`encoding` optional	The character encoding; defaults to `mb_internal_encoding()` (UTF-8).

The character position, or false.

Bytes vs charactersTry it yourself

<?php
$text = "Grüße aus München";
echo strpos($text, "aus"), "\n";    // byte position
echo mb_strpos($text, "aus"), "\n"; // character position

Output

8
6

Use with mb_substr()Try it yourself

<?php
$text = "Grüße aus München";
$pos = mb_strpos($text, "München");
echo mb_substr($text, $pos), "\n";

Output

München

Version	Change
PHP 4.0	Added

strpos() · Find the position of the first occurrence of a substring. Returns false if it's not found, so compare with === false.
mb_substr() · Return part of a string by character position, so multibyte characters are never cut in half. The UTF-8 version of substr().
str_contains() · Check whether a string contains a substring and return true or false. Case-sensitive; added in PHP 8.0.
PHP Strings · tutorial