php get first character of string

1$result = substr("Hello How are you", 0, 5); //first 5 chars "Hello"

1substr("testers", -1); // returns "s"

1
2<?php
3echo substr('abcdef', 1);     // bcdef
4echo substr('abcdef', 1, 3);  // bcd
5echo substr('abcdef', 0, 4);  // abcd
6echo substr('abcdef', 0, 8);  // abcdef
7echo substr('abcdef', -1, 1); // f
8
9// Accessing single characters in a string
10// can also be achieved using "square brackets"
11$string = 'abcdef';
12echo $string[0];                 // a
13echo $string[3];                 // d
14echo $string[strlen($string)-1]; // f
15
16?>
17
18//substr() function returns certain bits of a string 

1$firstStringCharacter = substr("hello", 0, 1);

1$newstring = substr($dynamicstring, -7);

1$words = explode(" ", $string);
2
3$firstname = $words[0];
4$lastname = $words[1];
5$third_word = $words[2];