If I remember correctly their was a string function in C that allowed my to
target a particular element in a string so that I could verify it's
authenticity. I think it was
strCharAt();

I would like to check the first element of a string:
$myString = 'asdf';
How can I check the first letter of this string?

Using regex expressions I can check the first letter here
$data = 'a';
$firstletter = eregi("^[a-z]{1}$",$data);

but this will fail:
$data = 'aasdf';
$firstletter = eregi("^[a-z]{1}$",$data);
if(!$firstletter){
echo "first char is a number";
}else{
echo 'char is a letter';
}
will always return "first char is a number";

$data = 'a';
$firstletter = eregi("^[a-z]{1}$",$data);
if(!$firstletter){
echo "first char is a number";
}else{
echo 'char is a letter';
}
will always return 'char is a letter';

So what DO I USE IN PHP TO CHECK the first char or any char of a string
literal?

insight would be greatly appreciated
thank you
Kevin