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Asked: 2026-05-11T20:30:58+00:00

What is the difference between $str[n] and $str{n}, given that $str is a string.

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What is the difference between $str[n] and $str{n}, given that $str is a string.

I noticed that both seem to work the same, except that {} does not occur in any documentation I found.

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  1. Editorial Team

    They are the same. However, they are getting rid of the {} syntax, so you should go with [].

    According to the manual:

    Characters within strings may be accessed and modified by specifying the zero-based offset of the desired character after the string using square array brackets, as in $str[42]. Think of a string as an array of characters for this purpose. The functions substr() and substr_replace() can be used when you want to extract or replace more than 1 character.

    Note: As of PHP 7.1.0, negative string offsets are also supported. These specify the offset from the end of the string. Formerly, negative offsets emitted E_NOTICE for reading (yielding an empty string) and E_WARNING for writing (leaving the string untouched).

    Note: Prior to PHP 8.0.0, strings could also be accessed using braces, as in $str{42}, for the same purpose. This curly brace syntax was deprecated as of PHP 7.4.0 and no longer supported as of PHP 8.0.0.

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