How to check if a string starts with a specified string? [duplicate]

I'm trying to check if a string starts with http. How can I do this check?

$string1 = 'google.com';
$string2 = 'http://www.google.com';

PHP 8 or newer:

Use the str_starts_with function:

str_starts_with('http://www.google.com', 'http')

PHP 7 or older:

Use the substr function to return a part of a string.

substr( $string_n, 0, 4 ) === "http"

If you're trying to make sure it's not another protocol. I'd use http:// instead, since https would also match, and other things such as http-protocol.com.

substr( $string_n, 0, 7 ) === "http://"

And in general:

substr($string, 0, strlen($query)) === $query

Use strpos():

if (strpos($string2, 'http') === 0) {
   // It starts with 'http'
}

Remember the three equals signs (===). It will not work properly if you only use two. This is because strpos() will return false if the needle cannot be found in the haystack.

There is also the strncmp() function and strncasecmp() function which is perfect for this situation:

if (strncmp($string_n, "http", 4) === 0)

In general:

if (strncmp($string_n, $prefix, strlen($prefix)) === 0)

The advantage over the substr() approach is that strncmp() just does what needs to be done, without creating a temporary string.