PHP check if URL contains a certain string

To check if a URL address contains a certain string in PHP, you need to use the strpos() or str_contains() function.

When you need to perform an exact match, you need to use a regex with preg_match() function.

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

Check if URL contains a string in PHP

The strpos() function helps you check the position of a string portion in a string.

The function returns an int indicating the position of the string, or false when the string is not found:

strpos(
    string $haystack,
    string $needle,
    int $offset = 0
): int|false

To check if a certains string exists in a URL address, call the strpos() as shown below:

$url = "https://sebhastian.com/php";

if (strpos($url, "php")) {
    print "php is found in the url";
} else {
    print "php is NOT found in the url";
}

In PHP v8, you can also use the str_contains() function, which checks whether a string contains a certain string.

It doesn’t return the position of the string like strpos(), only true if it contains the string or false otherwise:

str_contains(
    string $haystack,
    string $needle
): bool

You call the str_contains() like the strpos() functions:

$url = "https://sebhastian.com/php";

if (str_contains($url, "php")) {
    print "php is found in the url";
} else {
    print "php is NOT found in the url";
}

Both str_contains() and strpos() will match a URL that has the $needle anywhere.

For example, php, php-study, and phpstudy are considered valid.

If you want only an exact match, you need another way.

Check if URL contains an exact string in PHP

To check if a URL contains an exact string, you need to call the preg_match() function.

This function allows you to perform a regex match to your string.

You need to use the \b word boundary expression in the function as follows:

$url = "https://sebhastian.com/php";
$str = "php";

if (preg_match("~\b$str\b~", $url)) {
    print "php is found in the url";
} else {
    print "php is NOT found in the url";
}

With the above preg_match() function, php and php-study returns true while phpstudy will return false.

And that’s how you check if URL contains a certain string in PHP.