How to get the last character of a string using PHP

There are two ways you can get the last character of a string with PHP"

1. Access the string directly using the string numeric index
2. Use the substr() function to subtract the last character

Let’s learn how to do both in this tutorial.

Get the last character of a string with the numeric index access

Characters in a string can be accessed using a zero-based index like an array:

<?php

$str = "It's a wonderful day";

// 👇 Get the last character of the string
print $str[-1]; // Output: y

But keep in mind that the negative number index for strings only works in PHP version 7.1 and up.

This solution also won’t work if you have a multibyte string.

Use substr() to get the last character of a string

If you need to support multibyte strings and older versions of PHP, then it’s better to use the mb_substr() function to get the last character of a string:

<?php

// get the last character of a string
print substr("It's a wonderful day", -1); // Output: y

// another example with multibyte string
print mb_substr("おはよう", -1); // Output: う

The substr() and mb_substr() functions will work with all kinds of strings.

They are also available in older PHP versions (>= v4.0.6).

Now you’ve learned how to get the last character of a string in PHP. Great!