(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
substr_compare — Binary safe comparison of two strings from an offset, up to length characters
$haystack,$needle,$offset,$length = null,$case_insensitive = false
   substr_compare() compares haystack
   from position offset with needle
   up to length characters.
  
haystackThe main string being compared.
needleThe secondary string being compared.
offsetThe start position for the comparison. If negative, it starts counting from the end of the string.
length
       The length of the comparison. The default value is the largest of the
       length of the needle compared to the length of
       haystack minus the
       offset.
      
case_insensitive
       If case_insensitive is true, comparison is
       case insensitive.
      
   Returns a value less than 0 if string1
   is less than string2; a value greater
   than 0 if string1 is greater than
   string2, and 0 if they
   are equal.
   No particular meaning can be reliably inferred from the value aside
   from its sign.
  
   If offset is equal to (prior to PHP 7.2.18, 7.3.5) or
   greater than the length of haystack, or the
   length is set and is less than 0,
   substr_compare() prints a warning and returns
   false.
  
| Version | Description | 
|---|---|
| 8.2.0 | 
  This function is no longer guaranteed to return
  strlen($string1) - strlen($string2) when string lengths
  are not equal, but may now return -1 or
  1 instead.
  | 
| 8.0.0 | 
        length is nullable now.
        | 
      
| 7.2.18, 7.3.5 | 
        offset may now be equal to the length of haystack.
        | 
      
Example #1 A substr_compare() example
<?php
echo substr_compare("abcde", "bc", 1, 2), PHP_EOL; // 0
echo substr_compare("abcde", "de", -2, 2), PHP_EOL; // 0
echo substr_compare("abcde", "bcg", 1, 2), PHP_EOL; // 0
echo substr_compare("abcde", "BC", 1, 2, true), PHP_EOL; // 0
echo substr_compare("abcde", "bc", 1, 3), PHP_EOL; // 1
echo substr_compare("abcde", "cd", 1, 2), PHP_EOL; // -1
echo substr_compare("abcde", "abc", 5, 1), PHP_EOL; // -1
?>