PHP check if a string starts with a specific string
Jul 14, 2025 am 02:44 AMIn PHP, you can use a variety of methods to determine whether a string starts with a specific string: 1. Use strncmp() to compare the first n characters, and if 0 is returned, the beginning matches and is not case-sensitive; 2. Use strpos() to check whether the substring position is 0, which is case-sensitive. You can use strncmp() instead to implement case-insensitive; 3. You can encapsulate the startsWith() or str_starts_with() functions to improve reusability; in addition, you need to note that empty strings return true by default, encoding compatibility and performance differences, strncmp() is usually more efficient.
Determining whether a string starts with a specific string is actually quite common in PHP, such as when dealing with URLs, file names, or various conditional judgments. PHP itself does not have a special startsWith function, but we can use built-in functions or write a small function ourselves to implement it.

Use strncmp()
to determine the beginning
strncmp()
is a more practical function that can compare the first n characters of two strings. If you want to know if $haystack
starts with $needle
, you can use it like this:
if (strncmp($haystack, $needle, strlen($needle)) === 0) { // It is established, indicating that $haystack starts with $needle}
For example, you want to determine whether 'hello world'
starts with 'hello'
:

$haystack = 'hello world'; $needle = 'hello'; if (strncmp($haystack, $needle, strlen($needle)) === 0) { echo 'Yes, it starts with hello'; }
The advantage of this method is that it is case-insensitive (you can use strncasecmp()
if you want to distinguish), and it is not very efficient.
Use strpos()
to check position
Another common method is to use strpos()
, which returns the first time the substring appears. If the position is 0, it means that it starts with the string:

if (strpos($haystack, $needle) === 0) { // Match successfully}
for example:
$haystack = 'https://example.com'; $needle = 'https://'; if (strpos($haystack, $needle) === 0) { echo 'This is an HTTPS address'; }
It should be noted that strpos()
is case sensitive. If you need to be case insensitive, you can use stripos()
instead.
Encapsulate a startsWith function yourself
For clearer code and higher reusability, you can encapsulate a simple function yourself:
function startsWith($haystack, $needle) { return strncmp($haystack, $needle, strlen($needle)) === 0; }
Or add compatibility check:
if (!function_exists('str_starts_with')) { function str_starts_with($haystack, $needle) { return strncmp($haystack, $needle, strlen($needle)) === 0; } }
This way, even older versions of PHP can use functions similar to new functions.
Pay attention to small details
- If
$needle
is an empty string, most implementations will return true, which is logical. - Pay attention to string encoding issues. If you are dealing with UTF-8 multibyte characters, it is best to confirm whether the function supports it.
- In scenarios where performance requirements are particularly high,
strncmp()
is usually a little faster thanstrpos()
.
Basically that's it. These methods can meet the needs of daily development. Which one to choose depends on your habits and project environment.
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