Leading Nor Trailing

By Lincoln Russell

<?php

 $dst = 'a=b';
 // $dst has no = leading or trailing or missing
 if (!in_array(strpos($dst, '='), [0, false, strlen($dst) - 1])) {
    print $dst;
 }


if (str_contains($dst, '=') && !str_starts_with($dst, '=')  && !str_ends_with($dst, '=')) {
    print $dst;
}

Occasionally, it’s a drawback to be fluent in the old ways. Wrote this too-clever PHP code and died a little inside:

if (!in_array(strpos($dst, '='), [0, false, strlen($dst) - 1]))

Then a little voice inside me said “didn’t PHP 8 add some string functions…”

It did! Thus:

if (str_contains($dst, '=') && !str_starts_with($dst, '=')  && !str_ends_with($dst, '='))

Yay for code that doesn’t require a PhD in wtf were you thinking 😂.

See Also

• Leading or Trailing Char [Try me]

PHP Features

• in_array

• string

Last updated: 28 August 2026