Test if a string contains a word in PHP?

Question

In SQL we have NOT LIKE %string%

I need to do this in PHP.

if ($string NOT LIKE %word%) { do something } 

I think that can be done with strpos()

But can’t figure out how…

I need exactly that comparission sentence in valid PHP.

if ($string NOT LIKE %word%) { do something } 

Answer 1

if (strpos($string, $word) === FALSE) {    ... not found ... } 

Note that strpos() is case sensitive, if you want a case-insensitive search, use stripos() instead.

Also note the ===, forcing a strict equality test. strpos CAN return a valid 0 if the 'needle' string is at the start of the 'haystack'. By forcing a check for an actual boolean false (aka 0), you eliminate that false positive.

Answer 2

Use strpos. If the string is not found it returns false, otherwise something that is not false. Be sure to use a type-safe comparison (===) as 0 may be returned and it is a falsy value:

if (strpos($string, $substring) === false) {     // substring is not found in string }  if (strpos($string, $substring2) !== false) {     // substring2 is found in string }