In this PHP tutorial, you shall learn how to check if the given string starts with a number using is_numeric() function, with example programs.

PHP – Check if String Starts with Number

To check if string starts with number, access the staring character of string and use PHP built-in function is_numeric() to check if this character is numeric or not.

The syntax of is_numeric() to check if given string starts with a number or not is

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is_numeric($string[0])

You can use this condition in a PHP If statement, and have conditional execution when a string starts with a number or not.

Examples

1. Check if string starts with a number

In this example, we will take a string, say "4Hello World" in $string, and check if this string starts with a number. We will use an If statement with the condition formed using is_numeric() function.

PHP Program

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<?php
$string = "4Hello World";
if ( is_numeric($string[0]) ) {
    echo "\"{$string}\" starts with a number.";
} else {
    echo "\"{$string}\" does not start with a number.";
}
?>

Output

PHP - Check if String Starts with Number

Conclusion

In this PHP Tutorial, we learned how to check if a string starts with a number, using PHP built-in function is_numeric().