How to check if a string contains a specific word or substring in PHP?

Before PHP 8 we can use strpos function of PHP to find a specific word or substring within a string. (substring in PHP)

You can use the strpos() function which is used to find the occurrence of one string inside another one (substring in PHP):

$a = 'Check substring within a string in PHP?';

if (strpos($a, 'substring') !== false) {
    echo 'true';
}

strpos() returns either the offset at which the needle string begins in the string, or the boolean false if the needle isn’t found.

With PHP 8

PHP 8 offers str_contains function. Function returns boolean.

if (str_contains('How are you', 'are')) { 
    echo 'true';
}