How to remove the first character of string in PHP?

Remove the very first character of a given string in PHP Examples:

Input : Geeksforgeeks
Output : eeksforgeeks

Input :, Hello geek!
Output : Hello geek!

Explanation:

In PHP to remove characters from the beginning we can use ltrim but in that, we have to define what we want to remove from a string i.e. removing characters are to be known.

Example:

<?php
    $str = "geeks";

    // Or we can write ltrim($str, $str[0]);
    $str = ltrim($str, 'g');

    echo $str;
?>

eeks

If string is not known and we want to remove characters from beginning then we can use substr()

Here we can use it by two parameters one is the string and the other is the index. substr() return string from the second parameter index to the end of the string.

<?php
    $str = "geeks";
    $str1 = substr($str, 1);
    echo $str1."\n";
    $str1 = substr($str, 2);
    echo $str1; 
?>

eeks
eks

Using preg_replace()

Using preg_replace(), you can remove the first character of a string with a regular expression. The pattern /^./ matches the first character, and replacing it with an empty string removes it.

Example:

<?php
$string = "Hello World";
$string = preg_replace('/^./', '', $string);
echo $string;  // Output: ello World
?>

ello World

Using mb_substr() for multibyte strings

Using mb_substr() in PHP ensures accurate handling of multibyte characters when removing the first character from a string. It takes into account character encoding, ensuring the operation respects the actual character boundaries.

Example:

<?php
$string = "Hello World";
$string = mb_substr($string, 1); // Remove the first character
echo $string; // Output: "ello World"
?>

ello World

Using Array Manipulation

Using array manipulation, you can remove the first character of a string in PHP by converting the string to an array, removing the first element, and then rejoining the array into a string. This method ensures flexible handling of characters.

Example

<?php
$string = "Hello, World!";
$stringArray = str_split($string);
array_shift($stringArray);
$modifiedString = implode('', $stringArray);
echo $modifiedString . PHP_EOL; // Output: ello, World!
?>

ello, World!

Using ltrim()

The ltrim() function is typically used to remove whitespace or other predefined characters from the beginning of a string. However, we can customize it to remove the first character of a known string.

Example:

<?php

$string = "Geeksforgeeks";
$result = ltrim($string, $string[0]);
echo $result; // Output: eeksforgeeks

?>

eeksforgeeks

Using str_replace() with str_split()

Using str_replace() in conjunction with str_split(), you can remove the first character of a string by converting the string into an array, replacing the first character, and then joining the array back into a string.

Example

<?php
function removeFirstCharacter($str) {
    // Split the string into an array of characters
    $charArray = str_split($str);
    // Remove the first character
    array_shift($charArray);
    // Join the array back into a string
    return implode('', $charArray);
}

$input1 = "Geeksforgeeks";
$input2 = ", Hello geek!";

$output1 = removeFirstCharacter($input1);
$output2 = removeFirstCharacter($input2);

echo "Input: $input1\n";
echo "Output: $output1\n";

echo "Input: $input2\n";
echo "Output: $output2\n";
?>

Input: Geeksforgeeks
Output: eeksforgeeks
Input: , Hello geek!
Output:  Hello geek!

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.