Check if a string contains a specific word or not in PHP

By Ujwal Kumar Sahoo

In this article, we are going to see how to check if the occurrence of a specific word in a string using PHP. It can be done by matching the search string with the source string.

What are the methods for checking a specific word in a string?

There are several methods to check if a string contains a specific word or not in PHP. Below are the two methods:

Using String function
Using the traversal method and etc.

Let us first discuss the simplest one i.e. using String function,

<?php
$str = 'Codespeedy Codes faster and also in efficient manner';
$s='Codes';
if (strpos($str,$s) !== false) {
    echo '"'.$s.'" Present in the source string';
}
?>

Explanation:-

The function strpos() checks the search string($s) in the source string($str). If it is found, it returns true.

Output:-

"Codes" Present in the source string

Let us discuss another method for finding specific string i.e. the traversal method,

Check if a string contains a specific word or not in PHP

<?php
$str='Codespeedy Codes faster and also in efficient manner';//source string
$s='Codes';//finding string
$i = $m = $c =$flag=0;
  while ( !empty($str[$c]))
  {
    if ( $str[$m] == $s[$i] ) 
    {
      
        $i++;
        $m++;
        
      if ( empty($s[$i]))		 //Find occurance
      {
        echo $s.' is present in '.($c+1).' location<br>';
        $flag=1;
        $i=0;
        $c=$m;
      }
    }
    else		 //... mismatch
    {
      
      $c++;
      $m = $c;
      $i=0;
    }
  }
  if($flag==0)
    echo $s.' is not present';
?>

Explanation:-

In the above code segment, every character in the search string($s) is compared with every character of source string($str). Both are incremented and compared until the $s is empty. If there is a mismatch then the $s again starts comparing its character from the beginning. If the $s is empty, then the string is found.

Output:-

Codes is present in 1 location
Codes is present in 12 location

There are also other ways to find a string in the source string using PHP. If you have any doubts about the above topic, leave us a comment below.

See also,

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