Character array in PHP

is there a character array in php
i want to display only first 100 characters in a string how can i do that i am not able to do it using arrays as i use in c/c++ .
Also how can i search for a particular letter in a variable.
example in http:// www. imobilecentral .be/ and www. imobilecentral . be/
how can i search for http:// and replace if i want

 

First 100 characters.

$string = 'a very long string here....';

echo substr($string, 0, 100);

PHP:

As for the other, you can do.

$domain = preg_replace('/https?:\/\/', 'replace with whatever', $domain);

PHP:

 

Actually, a string is an array.

$string = 'a very long string here....';
echo $string[0];
echo $string[2];

Code (markup):

This prints "av" to the screen. In the end, you will find string manipulation is a lot easier than under C/C++ and that you can replicate all the functionality you are used to.

 

thanks for the previous answer. i think i am asking too silly questions. i need to dust my programming books.
so what is the difference between preg_replace and str_replace

 

preg_replace() allows regular expressions while str_replace() doesn't.

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-replace.php