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PHP String Exercises: Find the first character that is different between two strings

PHP String: Exercise-11 with Solution

Write a PHP script to find the first character that is different between two strings.

String1 : 'football'
String2 : 'footboll'

Pictorial Presentation:

PHP String Exercises: Find the first character that is different between two strings

Sample Solution:

PHP Code:

<?php
$str1 = 'football';
$str2 = 'footboll';
$str_pos = strspn($str1 ^ $str2, "\0");
printf('First difference between two strings at position %d: "%s" vs "%s"',
$str_pos, $str1[$str_pos], $str2[$str_pos]);
printf("\n");
?>

Sample Output: 

First difference between two strings at position 5: "a" vs "o"

Flowchart :

Flowchart: Find the first character that is different between two strings

PHP Code Editor:

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Previous: Write a PHP script to replace the first 'the' of the following string with 'That'.
Next: Write a PHP script to put a string in an array.

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PHP: Tips of the Day

Members of objects or classes can be accessed using the object operator (->) and the class operator (::).

Example:

class MyClass {
 public $a = 1;
 public static $b = 2;
 const C = 3;
 public function d() { return 4; }
 public static function e() { return 5; }
}
$object = new MyClass();
var_dump($object->a); // int(1)
var_dump($object::$b); // int(2)
var_dump($object::C); // int(3)
var_dump(MyClass::$b); // int(2)
var_dump(MyClass::C); // int(3)
var_dump($object->d()); // int(4)
var_dump($object::d()); // int(4)
var_dump(MyClass::e()); // int(5)
$classname = "MyClass"; 
var_dump($classname::e()); // also works! int(5)

Note that after the object operator, the $ should not be written ($object->a instead of $object->$a). For the class operator, this is not the case and the $ is necessary. For a constant defined in the class, the $ is never used.

Also note that var_dump(MyClass::d()); is only allowed if the function d() does not reference the object:

class MyClass {
 private $a = 1;
 public function d() {
 return $this->a;
 }
}
$object = new MyClass();
var_dump(MyClass::d()); // Error!

This causes a 'PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Using $this when not in object context'

These operators have left associativity, which can be used for 'chaining':

class MyClass {
 private $a = 1;

 public function add(int $a) {
 $this->a += $a;
 return $this;
 }

 public function get() {
 return $this->a;
 }
}
$object = new MyClass();
var_dump($object->add(4)->get()); // int(5)

These operators have the highest precedence (they are not even mentioned in the manual), even higher that clone. Thus:

class MyClass {
 private $a = 0;
 public function add(int $a) {
 $this->a += $a;
 return $this;
 }
 public function get() {
 return $this->a;
 }
}
$o1 = new MyClass();
$o2 = clone $o1->add(2);
var_dump($o1->get()); // int(2)
var_dump($o2->get()); // int(2)

The value of $o1 is added to before the object is cloned!

Note that using parentheses to influence precedence did not work in PHP version 5 and older (it does in PHP 7):

// using the class MyClass from the previous code
$o1 = new MyClass();
$o2 = (clone $o1)->add(2); // Error in PHP 5 and before, fine in PHP 7
var_dump($o1->get()); // int(0) in PHP 7
var_dump($o2->get()); // int(2) in PHP 7